Nelson Mandela is said to have mistaken Idris Elba for himself when viewing a clip of the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Maybe it was the medication (he had just been released from hospital with a lung infection), or maybe it was symbolic of just how much Elba embodied his mannerisms. Based on Nelson Mandela's 1995 eponymous autobiography, this biopic attempts to encapsulate the soul behind the man with a remarkable story to tell of his journey from farm boy to President.
The film covers Mandela's early life, coming of age, education, work as an ambitious lawyer and 27 years on Robben Island. Yes, I know. A lot, and it shows. The 2 hour 20 minute motion picture seems weighed down by its mammoth task and stumbles along the way to the finish. Important characters become one-dimensional due to the time constraints, and it seems that Mandela almost single-handedly brought down the oppressive regime. Some information is missing, some events are glossed ever and others over-dramatised but ultimately it doesn't shy away from the unpleasant truths of the ANC's violent struggle against apartheid and Mandela's womanising and failed marriages. It doesn't glorify the icon but rather humanises him and is at its best in the intimate moments with Winnie (Naomie Harris), his children, his fellow ANC campaigners, and even his jailers.
Daniel Day-Lewis had a tough job playing one of America's most beloved presidents in Lincoln, but whereas he had room to manoeuvre (no one knows how Honest Abe actually spoke), Elba did not. He had the tough job of emulating someone so well-known, revered and emblematic of South Africa to the world. In a role initially considered for Denzel Washington, Elba captures Mandela's voice, accent, self-deprecating humour, gait and mannerisms so brilliantly it almost seemed effortless. Naomie Harris is superb, raw, passionate as his soulmate come political rival Winnie, and as Harris admits, The hardest thing I've ever done. With help from dialogue coach Fiona Ramsay, the two British leads make you almost believe they are natives.
Director Justin Chadwick (The First Grader) and screenwriter William Nicholson (Les Mis rables) had a difficult task and they managed to produce a stirring narrative of the apartheid icon. He may not have been the only contributor, but he played a key role in the solution that avoided an all out war. The cinematography by Lol Crawley is magnificent and made me feel incredibly homesick. The interspersing of actual footage, historical moments and flashbacks to his childhood are where Chadwick deftly manages to avoid the usual clich s in film-making. Despite knowing how the story plays out, I was still moved to tears. His forgiving nature and calm attitude is all the more laudable when Winnie's zealous response would be the more understandable one.
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela
It has its flaws, it's not completely warts-and-all in its attempt to remain respectful to the former South African president and Winnie (a consultant on the project). Those flaws are not deal-breakers however and can be overlooked. Maybe that's because I grew up in South Africa and this is part of my story, or maybe it's because it is a deeply moving account of the man that, against all odds, fought for equality for all.
Posthumously Mandela will continue to be celebrated and this movie is just one way to commemorate the wisdom, the sacrifice and the freedom gained by one of the most inspirational leaders of the 20th century.
Rest in peace Madiba and thank you.
Read more reviews of the film:
Review - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' a flawed yet powerful film
Film review: Elba embodies Mandela in this action packed, absorbing drama
What did you think? In step with the man behind the activist or too leisurely a stroll down memory lane? Comment below.
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...
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...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Nelson Mandela is said to have mistaken Idris Elba for himself when viewing a clip of the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Maybe it was the medication (he had just been released from hospital with a lung infection), or maybe it was symbolic of just how much Elba embodied his mannerisms. Based on Nelson Mandela's 1995 eponymous autobiography, this biopic attempts to encapsulate the soul behind the man with a remarkable story to tell of his journey from farm boy to President.
