An Act of Defiance

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

Apartheid is rampant in South Africa, 1963. When ten men are arrested on a farm in Rivonia for conspiring to commit sabotage and violent acts against the repressive South African government, tenacious lawyer Bram Fisher steps up to the challenge as lead counsel. He soon finds that political leader Nelson Mandela is also on trial. Mandela urges his fellow defendants to plead not guilty and shine light on the systemic corruption against the African people. As the outcome of the trial looks bleak, Mandela gives his famous "I’m Prepared to Die" speech, discussing how the ANC’s resistance is justified. But will Mandela’s impassioned speech save these men’s lives.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

It’s always sad when foreign filmmakers are the ones making the biopics of South Africa’s history - we have a few historical films that focus on a pre-Apartheid history, but when it comes to one of the darkest chapters in our country’s history, there’s a huge gap. Even films about Nelson Mandela have been consistently driven by international production houses, and in this case, a Dutch filmmaker decided to tackle the story of Communist leader and lawyer-activist Bram Fischer.

Born into the privilege of his white skin, he opted instead for a life of struggle against an oppressive regime, and one of his most famous feats was as the defence attorney in the Rivonia Trial, where he managed to help his clients - and friends - avoid the death penalty. An Act of Defiance does not shy away from the militaristic drive that fueled Umkhonto We Sizwe and the Communist Party at the time, but instead of voicing judgement the film instead focuses on a man that gave everything to fight the injustice he saw every day in the courtroom.

The film starts with the arrest of Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and other struggle leaders at the infamous Liliesleaf Farm, where they are charged with sabotage. Bram Fischer, who would have been among the arrested if he had not been called into work on the day, heads up their defence council despite police harassment and potentially implicating himself in the charges.

I felt a bit bad that I didn’t know as much about Bram Fischer as a South African should (dropped history like a hot potato in school) and I learned a lot watching the film. From my research done after watching the movie, An Act of Defiance religiously stuck to the facts with a little bit of embellishment here and there. Mandela had been quoted many times about his reverence for the Communist lawyer, portrayed in the film, and his love for his family seemed genuinely sincere, especially considering that his wife at one point had also been detained for her activism against Apartheid. Played brilliantly by Antoinette Louw, she plays a central role in the film, showing the support and help she gave her husband. It’s another push for the recognition of women in the struggle, who sometimes have been forgotten when honouring our country’s heroes.

I also think it might be one of the first times that Mandela is played by a South African - Sello Motloung - who was quite enigmatic in the role, even though he was not the star of the film. That was Fischer, played by Dutch actor Peter Paul Muller. He exudes an old-school Hollywood charm which sometimes makes him seem a little out of place with the rest of the cast. However, it helps the audience connect with his character on a deeper level - his emotions flow out of the screen with few words and brings a pivotal point in history closer to an audience that today feel far removed from it. There’s a reason it’s won multiple awards on its two-year film festival circuit, and the cast is a big part of those wins.

One thing I do have to note - Afrikaners will feel that the language and the way it is spoken is a little off, especially with Muller who is very obviously not Afrikaans. However, it does help to place you in that period when Afrikaans’s Dutch roots were a little more prominent than today, and people didn’t generally mix their Afrikaans as much.

An Act of Defiance is an essential film for South Africans to watch, even if it is to learn more about our history, and the predominantly local cast might help you forget that it’s a foreign production. Perhaps it may even spur more local filmmakers on to start moulding our country’s history for the big screen themselves