Fitting in

Fabienne Steiner
Switzerland | 2025 | 84 min
World premiere
Languages : English, Afrikaans
Subtitles : English, French, German

At Stellenbosch University in South Africa, within the walls of a prestigious student residence called Eendrag, young men from all walks of life are confronted with colonial structures and traditions. 30 years after the end of apartheid, the free-born generation attempts to navigate between personal growth, cultural differences and a past still fresh in their collective memory.

A new academic year begins at Stellenbosch University, founded in 1918 during the height of British colonial rule in South Africa. Once a cornerstone of Apartheid’s ideological machinery, this prestigious institution now finds itself grappling with the weight of its troubled past. Fitting In explores this legacy with subtlety and insight, offering the floor to students taking their first steps within the university—descendants of both oppressors and the oppressed. The film focuses in particular on the residents of Eendrag, one of Stellenbosch’s emblematic all-male dormitories.
Structured like a diptych, the film unfolds through two distinct yet interwoven spheres—two worlds, two registers of speech that reflect and respond to one another. On one side, public discourse, heard in Eendrag’s grand communal halls, where solemn declarations are made about the institution’s urgent need for inclusivity. On the other, more hushed voices, captured in the intimacy of dorm rooms behind closed doors, where students reflect on what inclusivity truly means: how to define it, how to live it, how to embody it—beyond the rhetoric.
Dimitri De Preux

Fitting in, 2025
Café Zentrum, 2020