The time off shown in this film only appears to be voluntary. In her mid thirties, Lesego suddenly turns up at her mother Doris’ doorstep and goes back to living with her. Doris lives in the South African small town Thorntree, not far from Johannesburg, where Lesego worked as a banker. At least up to now: financial supervision is after her and shut down all of her accounts. She is alone and afraid to lose everything. Lesego is suspected to have participated in a risky investment business that cost thousands of miner widows their pension. Her daughter’s return stirs up the mother’s life and reminds Lesego of the crampedness of her childhood. In Sabbatical, a mixture of drama and thriller, the South African director Karabo Lediga shows a clash between cultures and generations: the one that still lived in apartheid and the other, younger one that grew up in a more liberal society and that falls for the appeals of the big business. These two women will, and have to, find new ways to deal with each other at the end of this film that tells a lot about the mental state of the black South African middle class.