I’ve just received this news from United International Pictures and am gonna publish the movie’s synopsis as it is - at the end of the article.
If the marketing synopsis is anything to go by, this is indeed a great movie that can be enjoyed by all. The thing is, this kind of stuff is sunshine journalism from the producers trying to attract people to watch the film.
Based on the synopsis, it looks like the movie captures the significance of events that led to the end of the apartheid government in a way that engages the audience and possibly challenges them about how they perceive the likes of the “aloof” Thabo Mbeki and other struggle figures of his nature etc.
Mbeki is played by Chiwetel
It is disappointing that today our politicians are concerned with enriching their wallets and so forth. If only they could remember how they fought for us all to be free, I think we may have a sane government.
It must be pointed out that it is really going to be interesting to see how P W Botha is portrayed - the Sunday Times ran this headline at the time of death: “A MONSTER IS DEAD”.
Political leaders must remember the cause of the struggle and stop their nonsense
Enough with that, ... Naledi Award Life Time Achievement recipient John Kani has been crying out foul for not playing Madiba in the Academy Award nominated movie Invictus.
He must be smiling all the to the bank now that he got to play his father-in-law, Oliver Tambo (yes, he is married to the snobbish Tselane Tambo).
He may not have played Madiba but he should be smiling as he played a politically powerful figure. He must also be smiling that Morgan Freeman told GQ magazine last month that he will not be playing all the Madiba roles that come his way. “I am not going to buy the Madiba franchise,” he told GQ magazine during an interview in Cape Town.
The movie stars British actor Chiwetel Elijofor as Thabo Mbeki (he received a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for his role in this film), American actor and singer Clarke Peters as Nelson Mandela; and our very own actor, playwright and director John Kani as Oliver Tambo.
Like father (in-law) like son (in-law) is moolah on John Kani's pocket who's smiling all the way to the bank.
I am not sure whether the movie will be released internationally but since the director, Pete Travis, is English, it may. The movie has already received rave international media reviews.
I will abstain from commenting on the movie’s “thrilling action" and critiquing it until it realses in SA on 11 June. After I watch it for R8.00 on Tuesday 15 June, only will I then critique it.
Pete may want to make moolah in London and Hollywood by negotiating distribution in those countries and John Kani can bet his bottom dollar that he'll be receiving more significant international or Hollywood roles.
Speaking about the movie, Pete says: “When I first read the script, the first question I asked is why would anyone want to watch a film about talks. It’s just boring…To me, at the heart of it, was a love story.
"I wanted to take a dry, but nevertheless important political story and make it deeply personal, emotional and moving. I wanted to see the events through the eyes of two bitter men, bitter enemies who are forced to confront their deep rooted hatred of each other."
Life and times of a cold-blooded killer: P W Botha is played by Matthew Marsh
And now, here goes the sunshine synopsis of the movie:
This is an epic political thriller full of unexpected heroes.
South Africa, 1985. The country is under siege. Sanctions are biting, Mandela’s imprisonment is an international cause celebre, and the ANC guerrilla terrorist attacks are escalating.
Every day the country is more ungovernable as it plunges towards the apocalypse of a race war. Think Battle of Algiers and you get a sense of the bitter mood in South Africa at that time.
In their saner moments everyone knows the vile apartheid regime is doomed but will the transition to democracy be peaceful or bloody?
Working for P.W. Botha as a somewhat Machiavellian Head of Intelligence, Doctor Neil Barnard opens furtive talks with Nelson Mandela who is still in prison.
These talks have been well documented. Less known are the secret talks that take place in the unlikely setting of a rural English manor house.
The UK talks - arranged by a British businessman and sponsored by a mining company that although perceived as reactionary and rightwing is seeking to secure its future in South Africa – would see influential Afrikaners sit down face to face with their fiercest enemies from the ANC, led by future President Thabo Mbeki.
Both sides have everything to win and everything to lose, including their own lives. The stakes are immense, the secrecy total.
A country at war with itself: Chilling pictures that shocked the world. Ka Sepedi ke ntwa ya bana ba thari. Eintlike, wasn't P W Botha and the National Party ashamed of themselves?
But Botha knows of the UK talks too. If the demise of apartheid is inevitable he intends to control the endgame by employing the tactics of divide and rule.
Dr Barnard must wring as many concessions out of Mandela as he can whilst instructing the Afrikaners to do the same with the ANC in the UK – then play one off against the other.
Against all the odds, through volatile discussion, setbacks and breakthroughs, the secret talks achieve the unimaginable - a precious arena of frail trust between the two warring parties.
Meanwhile the UK talks are inter-cut with Mandela’s tense negotiations at Pollsmoor Prison and later in the heavily bugged warden’s villa at Victor Verster Prison.
Showing Mandela’s courage, this film also shows for first time the courage of the unsung heroes at the crucial UK talks.
Would they ever live to see the peace they were striving so hard for?
The bastard that killed without thinking twice
Sometimes peace can only be achieved away from the radar of public scrutiny.
A decade later when the IRA decided to negotiate a peaceful solution to the Irish conflict they secretly turned to the ANC for advice on how to do it. It is believed that the IRA is now in secret talks advising Hamas on the same strategy.
Madiba showed us that when you forgive, you free yourself
In the climate of the “war on terror” we all now live in, this inspiring film has never had more relevance.
At the end of it all and as a reward to an international superstar of note who is known by over 100 000 000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000 000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000 000 000 000 people all over the world, we can only pray that Bafana Bafana win the Fifa World Cup and give it to Madiba to keep it in his own home.