South African filmmaker John Barker is developing a six-episode, “Last Dance”-style documentary series about the South African national soccer team’s stirring triumph at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, a landmark moment for a young nation still celebrating its transition to democracy after the end of apartheid.
“Bafana the Boys,” which has already been acquired by South African streaming service eVOD and is currently being circled by global platforms, features interviews with legendary players from the championship squad, such as team captain Neil Tovey and star midfielder Doctor Khumalo. Barker is in talks with icons of the international game, including French players Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry — who scored his first international goal against South Africa — as well as coaching legends Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.
Produced by Joel Phiri and Athos Kyriakides for Known Associates Entertainment, “Bafana the Boys” also includes interviews with former South African President Thabo Mbeki,...
“Bafana the Boys,” which has already been acquired by South African streaming service eVOD and is currently being circled by global platforms, features interviews with legendary players from the championship squad, such as team captain Neil Tovey and star midfielder Doctor Khumalo. Barker is in talks with icons of the international game, including French players Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry — who scored his first international goal against South Africa — as well as coaching legends Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.
Produced by Joel Phiri and Athos Kyriakides for Known Associates Entertainment, “Bafana the Boys” also includes interviews with former South African President Thabo Mbeki,...
- 2/28/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The opening shot to this fascinating documentary shows an unassuming man playing a card game, accompanied by a voiceover. The setting itself feels theatrical, as though subsequent events are a new fictional-feature spin on the release of one of the world’s most iconic statesmen, Nelson Mandela, and the end of Apartheid in South Africa. We soon learn that this is French-Algerian businessman and international diplomat Jean-Yves Ollivier, known as ‘Monsieur Jacques’. He’s real and has quite a story to tell, doing so in an unanticipated fashion.
This well-kept ‘secret weapon’ behind Mandela’s release is supported by on-camera confirmation from a ‘star-studded cast’, including Winnie Mandela (Anc activist and Mandela’s ex), Thabo Mbeki (former President of South Africa) and even Pik Botha (former Minister of Foreign Affairs for South Africa at the time), plus other heads of state, generals, diplomats, master spies, etc. The film skilfully uses...
This well-kept ‘secret weapon’ behind Mandela’s release is supported by on-camera confirmation from a ‘star-studded cast’, including Winnie Mandela (Anc activist and Mandela’s ex), Thabo Mbeki (former President of South Africa) and even Pik Botha (former Minister of Foreign Affairs for South Africa at the time), plus other heads of state, generals, diplomats, master spies, etc. The film skilfully uses...
- 3/13/2014
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In film, the role of the former Anc activist and president of South Africa has traditionally been approached with great reverence
The voice. The gentle, mysterious smile. The walk – generally an older man's walk, across a garden, or presidential office, or prison exercise yard. The enigmatically polite manner: intimidating, even awe-inspiring for allies and adversaries alike. The list of actors who have tried all this is long: Morgan Freeman, David Harewood, Terrence Howard, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Clarke Peters, Dennis Haysbert, Idris Elba – and Lindane Nkosi, the one South African actor who has managed to make some sort of impression as this character in Anglo-Hollywood circles, for a film called Drum, about the 1950s anti-apartheid campaign, that played at festivals in London and Cannes.
Nelson Mandela has been a role to be approached reverently, a difficult part and a career hurdle in some ways, like a royal figure in a Shakespearian play,...
The voice. The gentle, mysterious smile. The walk – generally an older man's walk, across a garden, or presidential office, or prison exercise yard. The enigmatically polite manner: intimidating, even awe-inspiring for allies and adversaries alike. The list of actors who have tried all this is long: Morgan Freeman, David Harewood, Terrence Howard, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Clarke Peters, Dennis Haysbert, Idris Elba – and Lindane Nkosi, the one South African actor who has managed to make some sort of impression as this character in Anglo-Hollywood circles, for a film called Drum, about the 1950s anti-apartheid campaign, that played at festivals in London and Cannes.
Nelson Mandela has been a role to be approached reverently, a difficult part and a career hurdle in some ways, like a royal figure in a Shakespearian play,...
- 12/6/2013
- by Danny Glover, Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Chiwetel Ejiofor talks about his return to the London stage to play murdered African hero Patrice Lumumba in A Season in the Congo – and his emotional trip to the Congo to prepare for it
You have the sense talking to Chiwetel Ejiofor that he would always be prepared to go the extra mile. On screen and off he has a self-deprecating, generous spirit, quick to laugh, but he also carries a watchful air, a real openness to the moment. Directors – from Woody Allen to Spike Lee to Stephen Poliakoff – see this in him too. From his breakthrough role in Stephen Frears's 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things in which Ejiofor so memorably played the illegal immigrant doctor, Okwe, moonlighting as a minicab driver in London, he has been the go-to man for a particular kind of optimistic and highly credible intensity.
He seems fated to certain roles. He made a natural...
You have the sense talking to Chiwetel Ejiofor that he would always be prepared to go the extra mile. On screen and off he has a self-deprecating, generous spirit, quick to laugh, but he also carries a watchful air, a real openness to the moment. Directors – from Woody Allen to Spike Lee to Stephen Poliakoff – see this in him too. From his breakthrough role in Stephen Frears's 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things in which Ejiofor so memorably played the illegal immigrant doctor, Okwe, moonlighting as a minicab driver in London, he has been the go-to man for a particular kind of optimistic and highly credible intensity.
He seems fated to certain roles. He made a natural...
- 6/15/2013
- by Tim Adams
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar-winner Charlize Theron broke down in tears after former South African President Nelson Mandela praised her for putting their country on the map. The actress - who picked up the Best Actress prize for her role as a serial-killing prostitute in Monster at last month's Academy Awards - was guest of honor at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg yesterday. Mandela said of Theron, "She has put South Africa on the map. Even those who were ignorant of this place, having seen her, they must know that there is a country like South Africa." Wiping away her tears, the 28-year-old star told Mandela "I love you so much". Her meeting with Mandela comes just days after current president Thabo Mbeki congratulated Theron on her achievement. The actress left South Africa when she was 16, after a traumatic childhood - she witnessed her mother kill her violent father.
- 3/12/2004
- WENN
Hollywood beauty Charlize Theron was presented with an ounce of gold as she met South African president Thabo Mbeki on Monday. The Benoni-born actress returned to her homeland to share her Oscar success with her countrypeople after winning the Best Actress award for Monster last month. Mbeki invited Theron to meet him in a government guesthouse in Pretoria. The Premier enthused, "Very well done, Charlize. Excellent. The whole country is very proud." Mbeki handed the 28-year-old a box containing an ounce of gold ingrained in the rock in which it was formed and the wording, "Presented to Charlize Theron, our South African star, by President Thabo Mbeki." Theron gushes, "It's gorgeous. This has been lovely. It's been such a warm welcome."...
- 3/10/2004
- WENN
Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron has been praised by South African leader President Thabo Mbeki for making the country proud of her. The 28-year-old actress - who was raised in South Africa - was named Best Actress at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood for her performance in Monster. And Theron is now being touted as a figurehead of South African strength following her success - the actress witnessed her mother Gerda shoot her drunk father Charles dead in 1991, following a period of domestic abuse. President Mbeki says, "It's a triumph of new South African opportunity. In the film we saw her drawing on her innate tough-mindedness and her emotional stamina in overcoming the tragic personal circumstances of her early life to shine. Miss Theron, in her personal life, represents a grand metaphor of South Africa's move from agony to achievement. We rejoice in the recognition by most critical minds in filming that Charlize Theron is pure gold." But, despite Monster's widespread recognition, Theron's hometown of Benoni will not get to see the film - because local film bosses think it's too highbrow. A spokesman for South African movie distributor Nu Metro says, "The film caters for a particular niche. The people of Benoni would prefer to see Charlize in movies like The Italian Job."...
- 3/3/2004
- WENN
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