AllMovie

A man who has turned his back on his violent past finds that he can't walk away from his history in this drama from South Africa. Bobedi (Fana Mokoena) is a successful Johannesburg businessman who takes his wife Joy (Lindi Matshikiza) out for a night on the town to celebrate his recent promotion. They return home to a terrible surprise -- a gunman has broken into their home and kills Joy as Bobedi looks on. As it turns out, the killer is Bobedi's cousin OJ (Neo Ntlatleng), who was wronged by Bobedi years ago. When the police are slow to bring OJ to justice, Bobedi decides to take the law into his own hands with the help of his brother Boy-Boy (Presley Chweneyagae). But as Bobedi comes closer to finding OJ, we learn more about the seemingly respectable man's sinister past, and what led OJ to murder Joy. State of Violence was the first fiction feature from director Khalo Matabane, who earned critical acclaim for his documentary Conversations on Sunday Afternoon.