Mandela

MANDELA, nominated last year for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, is a film about the eventful life of the current South African president. The originally South African documentary filmmakers Jo Menell and Angus Gibson, assisted by producer Jonathan Demme, elaborated two hundred hours of on-location footage and interviews into a lively and instructive portrait. The makers could draw on an impressive collection of archive footage. The 79-year-old Mandela gave the film crew free access to his daily life, adding some personal comments. This alone would make this documentary unique. The film shows very private moments in Mandela‘s life, but also the massive protest marches, the highlights, triumphs and tragedies that have left their deep marks on his life. Mandela is followed from his childhood years. We see him as a young man in Johannesberg, we witness his political conscience bud and we see him being sent to jail, ending in the great triumph of being released in 1990 and his election to president of a new South Africa, free of apartheid, in 1994.Authorised biography of Nelson Mandela makes the world a witness of how history is made.