As South Africans, we're emotionally connected to Nelson Mandela's story; it's the story of the birth of our democracy and of the history that shaped us all. It's particularly significant as we reflect on 20 years of freedom and Madiba lies frail and ill in the twilight of his Long Walk.
That's why after watching Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, my inner patriot is wrestling with my inner critic.
Let's face it condensing a 700-page autobiography covering more than 70 years of an extraordinary life into a two-hour feature is a monumental challenge. The finished product is bound to be controversial in terms of what's included and what is not.
Because of the difficulty in portraying visually what is as much a book about a man's internal journey to freedom as about his and his country's political journey, this film concentrates on the more dramatic episodes in the last half of the former president's life, cleverly interspersed with flashbacks to his childhood and early days in Johannesburg.
A stirring soundtrack and some stunning landscape shots sweeping vistas of Cape Town, Eastern Cape and the Winelands are bound to give South Africans goosebumps (and make homesick expats weep).
The plot is fast paced and compelling but a tendency to skip years and even decades renders certain scenes more like vignettes. With little time to properly contextualise events or introduce supporting characters, those with only a cursory grasp of SA history may struggle to keep up.
Presenting a person regarded by many as a living saint in a balanced way poses another difficulty. If you're looking for a comprehensive, warts and all portrayal of the man, you'll be somewhat disappointed; this is Madiba: Lite'. Apart from hints at Mandela's love for the ladies in his youth and a possible propensity for violence, he is goodness personified. But somehow, he deserves that dignity, having been denied it for much of his life.
Idris Elba does a good job in the title role - yet it would take a much longer feature to adequately portray the many facets of Mandela's character: freedom fighter, father, husband, charismatic statesman and scholar, among others.
Elba's Mandela is serious and focussed; we don't see enough of his famous charisma, warmth and sense of humour. His incarceration on Robben Island is portrayed as a fruitless waiting game yet, ever the optimist, he never perceived it this way. I would have liked to see more of what he accomplished in jail, such as mentoring younger prisoners and pursuing further study.
Although her South African accent slips at times, Naomie Harris is the surprising star of the film. She deftly characterises Winnie Mandela's transformation from sweet yet determined young woman to angry militaristic activist, a chilling contrast to her husband who uses his years in prison to confront his demons and move past his bitterness. Harris brings such passion to the role that by the time she hardens, we are already on her side.
In the character of Winnie here too is the problem of presenting anything other than a positive portrayal of a living person, especially one who is a consultant on the film itself (unlike the Darrell Roodt-directed Winnie, into which Madikizela-Mandela is said to have been denied input). Although Long Walk to Freedom hints at the sinister activites of Winnie's Mandela United Football Club', she is not directly implicated in the kidnap and murder of 14-year old ANC activist Stompie Sepei, for which she was convicted but always denied.
Nelson Mandela's pain at being unable to watch his children grow up is a poignant reminder of the hardships he and others endured while I was growing up, safe and oblivious in my suburban bubble.
This is an intimate portrait of a dislocated family, symbolic of the millions of families torn apart in the struggle. We see Winnie jailed on several occasions for her activism and wonder how their daughters coped without parents during this difficult time.
The love story between Nelson and Winnie, although not the main focus of the original book, is one of the most engrossing aspects of this film and this theme of the conflict between family and country could have been developed even further into the film's central narrative.
While Mandela's autobiography gives credit to the other players in the struggle, this film almost gives the impression that he was solely responsible for ending apartheid. With precious little time to develop the supporting characters of Mandela's fellow Rivonia Trial prisoners beyond brief sketches, even the great Walter Sisulu is reduced to just a few lines of dialogue.
At the same time, the movie reminds us how crucial Mandela was in the fragile process of dismantling apartheid. Had Mandela not sacrificed the personal for the political, his marriage may have lasted but the country may not have benefitted from his leadership.
Had anyone other than FW de Klerk come into power and anyone other than Mandela been given the opportunity for dialogue with the SA government, it may have taken many more years of bloodshed to become a democracy.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom has its weaknesses but I have a feeling that, much like cult Rodriguez documentary Searching for Sugar Man, it will be well received both internationally and on home soil.
20 years of freedom is really not very long. Some wounds are still very tender and healing for some comes through revisiting, not ignoring the past. For many South Africans this film will be cathartic.
Our affection for Madiba will overlook the flaws, our patriotism will fill in the gaps; we'll forgive the director and lead actors being Brits because this is our traumatic, turbulent and transcendant story, exposed to the whole world on the big screen.
I for one, found it inc
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
As South Africans, we're emotionally connected to Nelson Mandela's story; it's the story of the birth of our democracy and of the history that shaped us all. It's particularly significant as we reflect on 20 years of freedom and Madiba lies frail and ill in the twilight of his Long Walk.
