Last night ZAlebs was out and about in Rosebank for the premiere of another hotly anticipated Mandela movie, only this time around the movie was about the life and times of Mam’ Winnie during  pre-democratic South Africa.  Although some of us already know the story of the woman who was behind what we’d consider the greatest man to ever walk this earth, it was intriguing to see this story brought to us visually. 

Before we start chatting aboutthe movie, I’d first like to tackle the elephant in the room which is Winnie’s disassociation of the movie.  Upon our arrival we were surprised to find out that not only was the director Darrell Roodt there but also the writer of Winnie’s autobiography – Annie Marie who was asked about Winnie’s disinterest towards the movie:

“You know, Winnie also didn’t work with me on the book either, I did ask her and she declined and that actually was a blessing in the long term because in the beginning I knew little about her history which made it even more import to do vigorous research about her and with that research I was able to write a truthful book about her.  It’s unfortunate that international movie reviewers rated the movie with a low score, and the only reason they did so was because this movie wasn’t in any way bashful to Winnie’s legacy.”

Which is entirely true, the movie is a complete salutation to the sacrifices Winnie Mandela dedicated herself to, and the story of a beautiful woman who only wanted to bring forth freedom in her lifetime but unfortunately somewhere, something went horribly wrong. 

Now we’re sure all you want to know is, is the movie worth watching? Well, honestly, that is entirely up to you. If you know the history of South African politics and Winnie’s involvement in it you might take a reign-check as the movie is really a snippet of an enormous archive of the life of Winnie and the late Nelson Mandela.  From the Rivonia trial, to the 1976 uprising its historical South African events we’ve all heard and read about.  

The one part we found most intriguing was the beginning of the movie where we’re introduced to a young, tomboyish Winnie who would stick-fight boys in her village just to prove to her father that she was more of a boy than any other young male in her village. Quite a feisty young lady she was.  The unfortunate part of this movie for us was the accents, whenever Jennifer uttered a word it just felt very uncomfortable, it was even more uncomfortable when she spoke Xhosa which had the whole cinema erupting in laughter, not that the scenes were humerous but just that what she said sounded a bit foreign to the Xhosa we're used to hearing.  Terrence on the other hand really impressed us with his Xhosa attempt, you could see that he worked extra hard in giving the language justice.

Read our interivew with Darrell Roodt here.

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