Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom follows the life of Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary and the first democratically elected President of South Africa.

Based on the 1994 autobiographical book Long Walk to Freedom, the film stars Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomie Harris as Winnie, Mandela’s wife. It follows Mandela’s early life, education and 27 years in prison before finally being elected as President in 1994. The film provides a heart wrenching appreciation of life during the South African apartheid, through the eyes of Mandela himself. Beginning with his families forced relocation to Soweto and culminating in the savage beating of his close friend purely for being drunk, queasy and missing the right documentation. This experience, as well as the many injustices he witnessed as a lawyer for black South African clients, spurred him on to form the African National Congress political party protesting apartheid, an act which eventually lead to his imprisonment.

Amid the political turmoil, the film also charts the complex relationship between Winnie and her husband as she copes with both his imprisonment and her own continuing activism against apartheid.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a powerful and moving biopic with an excellent cast giving an insight into the complex life of a brilliant man. Not to be missed.

Catherine Allkins