Thursday 7 November 2013

Mandela movie 'Long Walk To Freedom' gets South Africa premiere

It was decades in the making but the long-awaited film based on Nelson Mandela's autobiography is finally here. Starring British actor Idris Elba as the beloved South African icon, "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" had its South African premiere Sunday in a buzzing Johannesburg cinema.

Mandela, 95, did not attend the premiere as he remains in critical but stable condition in his Johannesburg home, where he is being looked after by a team of military doctors.
Yet relatives, friends and former freedom fighters all joined the movie's cast and crew in what was an exciting and emotional gathering.


"It's going to evoke a lot of sad memories for me," Ndileka Mandela, the former President's granddaughter, said at the red carpet before the film's screening. "His incarceration was not a good time for me as his grandchild and for the family as a whole."
Based on Mandela's autobiography, also called "Long Walk to Freedom," the biopic follows Mandela's life journey from his childhood growing up in a rural village, through the anti-apartheid struggle and prison years, to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
The film's producer, South African Anant Singh, says he first started corresponding with Mandela about the movie's rights when the iconic leader was still behind bars.
Singh announced Tuesday that the film will be screened at the White House on November 7.
The movie is directed by Justin Chadwick ("The Other Boleyn Girl," "The First Grader") and also features fellow Briton Naomie Harris ("Skyfall") as Mandela's second wife, Winnie.
The movie has two foreign actors and the other 143 are all South Africans.
"Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" will be released in South Africa on November 28 and one day later it will premiere in in New York and Los Angeles.

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