An elite soldier is sent on a perilous solo mission in this underwhelming drama set during the Namibian war of independence
This South African-made action-drama unfolds against the background of a conflict little known about above the equator, much less used as a setting for film – the Namibian war of independence from 1966-90, Aka the South African border war. Often considered South Africa’s version of Vietnam, it was, among other things, a proxy fight between South Africa, then still under apartheid, and its allies at the time, and the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, who were backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
Although there’s a fair amount of on-screen contextualising in the opening minutes to explain key terms and ideas, The Recce feels made for a local audience that has a grasp of the cultural and historical background. That means it’s not easy for outsiders...
This South African-made action-drama unfolds against the background of a conflict little known about above the equator, much less used as a setting for film – the Namibian war of independence from 1966-90, Aka the South African border war. Often considered South Africa’s version of Vietnam, it was, among other things, a proxy fight between South Africa, then still under apartheid, and its allies at the time, and the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, who were backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
Although there’s a fair amount of on-screen contextualising in the opening minutes to explain key terms and ideas, The Recce feels made for a local audience that has a grasp of the cultural and historical background. That means it’s not easy for outsiders...
- 2/3/2021
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
In this beautifully shot but underwhelming story, a black-white duo enter the gruelling Dusi canoe marathon hoping to heal their nation’s wounds
‘Two people combine to make the power,” growls seasoned Afrikaner canoeist Steve (Grant Swanby) to his Soweto protege Duma (Lemogang Tsipa), as they struggle to get their paddles in sync and the future of South African race relations hangs by a thread. Inspired by a true story of an unfancied black-white duo who managed to win the gruelling 120km Dusi canoe marathon in 2014, Beyond the River sadly can’t muster more than bland motivational soundbites about how sport can heal the nation’s wounds. Resplendently photographed by Trevor Calverley, it feels as if there’s no racial divide that can’t be conquered by a soaring drone shot of glorious veldt.
Duma is drifting into a life of crime, illegally stripping cables for the metal, when he...
‘Two people combine to make the power,” growls seasoned Afrikaner canoeist Steve (Grant Swanby) to his Soweto protege Duma (Lemogang Tsipa), as they struggle to get their paddles in sync and the future of South African race relations hangs by a thread. Inspired by a true story of an unfancied black-white duo who managed to win the gruelling 120km Dusi canoe marathon in 2014, Beyond the River sadly can’t muster more than bland motivational soundbites about how sport can heal the nation’s wounds. Resplendently photographed by Trevor Calverley, it feels as if there’s no racial divide that can’t be conquered by a soaring drone shot of glorious veldt.
Duma is drifting into a life of crime, illegally stripping cables for the metal, when he...
- 4/26/2019
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Author: Zehra Phelan
To celebrate the forthcoming UK premiere and release of Blood & Glory, we have to honour of exclusively launching the trailer for the film.
Written and directed by Sean Else (Platteland; ‘n Man Soos My Pa), Blood & Glory may be a fictional story but it takes its inspiration from events that unfolded during the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa in 1901.
The cast is made of both British and South African actors that include Charlotte Salt (Beowulf; The Tudors), Patrick Connolly (Inferno; Crushed), Nick Cornwall (Blood Loyal; Retribution) and Josh Myers (Rise of the Footsoldier III; The Sweeney) for the British contingent and Stian Bam (Veraaiers) who plays Morkel, Bok van Blerk (Platteland; Vrou Soek Boer) and acclaimed South African talent Grant Swanby (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom; Invictus; The Fall) fighting for the South African contingent.
Also in trailers – The first teaser for Mary Poppins Returns arrives!
Director...
To celebrate the forthcoming UK premiere and release of Blood & Glory, we have to honour of exclusively launching the trailer for the film.
Written and directed by Sean Else (Platteland; ‘n Man Soos My Pa), Blood & Glory may be a fictional story but it takes its inspiration from events that unfolded during the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa in 1901.
The cast is made of both British and South African actors that include Charlotte Salt (Beowulf; The Tudors), Patrick Connolly (Inferno; Crushed), Nick Cornwall (Blood Loyal; Retribution) and Josh Myers (Rise of the Footsoldier III; The Sweeney) for the British contingent and Stian Bam (Veraaiers) who plays Morkel, Bok van Blerk (Platteland; Vrou Soek Boer) and acclaimed South African talent Grant Swanby (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom; Invictus; The Fall) fighting for the South African contingent.
Also in trailers – The first teaser for Mary Poppins Returns arrives!
Director...
- 3/5/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"What if we defeat you?" Cleopatra Entertainment has released an official Us trailer for the South African period epic Blood & Glory, which opened in South Africa in 2016, but is just now getting a Us release direct-to-vod this March. Based on true historical events from South Africa's history, the story is about a man who is taken prisoner during the Second Anglo-Boer War and is sent to the St. Helena concentration camp, where he tries to defeat a Colonal at the game of rugby. Stian Bam stars, along with Charlotte Salt, Josh Myers, Andre Jacobs, Greg Kriek, Nick Cornwall, and Grant Swanby. This actually looks like a film about rugby, or so it seems, with prisoners learning to play in order to battle against the warden. This just seems like an odd story to tell, but I don't know the history in South Africa well enough. Watch below. Here's the official...
- 2/27/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Rugby has a very long history in South Africa, and a significantly symbolic one in the relationship between Afrikaners and the British. That history will be leveraged to full dramatic effect next April when Modder En Bloed is slated to hit South African screens. After a shoot shrouded in secrecy, filming has finally wrapped and the first images and details have emerged.Modder en Bloed relates the story of Willem Morkel (Stian Bam), a Boer warrior and family man, who lost his wife and only child during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, killed by British soldiers. Willem is incarcerated, with other Boer prisoners-of-war, on the island St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. The tyrannical Colonel Swannell (Grant Swanby), a hot-headed Imperialist with a consuming hatred for...
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[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 11/16/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Idris Elba was pretty good in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”, even if 90% of the stuff they had him saying made me cringe. Then again, whenever someone opened their mouth in that movie, I cringed, but whatever. Point is, Elba still managed to be pretty good in it, and if he can polish that turd of a character, you can expect he’ll slay in a movie about something as important as Nelson Mandela’s life. Yes, I know, it’s obviously Oscar bait. But from the looks of this trailer, it’s deservedly so, and I think there’s something to be said about that. Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is based on South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society.
- 7/19/2013
- by Nix
- Beyond Hollywood
It usually takes more than a week for a full-on trailer to follow up a film's teaser vid, but since yesterday was the 95th birthday of the unconquerable Nelson Mandela himself, The Weinstein Company decided to make an exception. And what a celebration it was.
In the biopic, Idris Elba stars as Nelson Mandela, the South African revolutionary who stood up against an oppressive, divisive government and spent 27 years in prison before being released and later chosen as the nation's first democratically-elected president.
Whereas the teaser for "Mandela" was decidedly optimistic and sort of all's-well-that-ends-well-ish with him romping around a meadow with happy children, this trailer for the Justin Chadwick-directed pic is much grittier and more consequential in nature.
Based on Mandela's own written autobiography of the same name, the film chronicles the Nobel Peace Prize winner's journey from a young village boy onto becoming one of the world's most revered leaders.
In the biopic, Idris Elba stars as Nelson Mandela, the South African revolutionary who stood up against an oppressive, divisive government and spent 27 years in prison before being released and later chosen as the nation's first democratically-elected president.
Whereas the teaser for "Mandela" was decidedly optimistic and sort of all's-well-that-ends-well-ish with him romping around a meadow with happy children, this trailer for the Justin Chadwick-directed pic is much grittier and more consequential in nature.
Based on Mandela's own written autobiography of the same name, the film chronicles the Nobel Peace Prize winner's journey from a young village boy onto becoming one of the world's most revered leaders.
- 7/19/2013
- by Amanda Bell
- NextMovie
Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela? Sure, why not. I’m reasonably certain Idris Elba can play just about anyone and make it convincing. It’s all in the delivery, isn’t it? And in this first teaser trailer for “The Other Boleyn Girl” director Justin Chadwick’s “Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom”, it sure sounds like Elba has the delivery down pat. Of course this is just a teaser trailer and there isn’t much here, so it would be nice if we could see more. (And of course I’m assuming that’s actually Elba’s voice we’re hearing, reading something Mandela said, and not actually Mandela. I could be wrong, of course.) A chronicle of Nelson Mandela’s life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Starring Idris Elba, Naomie Harris,...
- 7/12/2013
- by Nix
- Beyond Hollywood
Man, oh man, we're calling it now: Justin Chadwick's Nelson Mandela biopic, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," is just going to own us all.
The first teaser trailer for The Weinstein Company's latest gut-wrencher is in, and as simple and obscure as it is — Idris Elba as the aging South African civil rights hero is shown walking along an open meadow pathway before a group of children start prancing around him — it's also effective at bringing on all the feels.
Mandela, the first democratically elected president of the post-apartheid nation who went onto win the Nobel Peace Prize after being imprisoned for 27 years, is well-known and frequently referenced for his many words of wisdom and bravery ... and this teaser nicely efforts to honor that.
The narrator declares, "I have walked a long walk to freedom. It has been a lonely road, and it is not over yet. No one...
The first teaser trailer for The Weinstein Company's latest gut-wrencher is in, and as simple and obscure as it is — Idris Elba as the aging South African civil rights hero is shown walking along an open meadow pathway before a group of children start prancing around him — it's also effective at bringing on all the feels.
Mandela, the first democratically elected president of the post-apartheid nation who went onto win the Nobel Peace Prize after being imprisoned for 27 years, is well-known and frequently referenced for his many words of wisdom and bravery ... and this teaser nicely efforts to honor that.
The narrator declares, "I have walked a long walk to freedom. It has been a lonely road, and it is not over yet. No one...
- 7/12/2013
- by Amanda Bell
- NextMovie
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