How did Apartheid really end? If you ask that question of most South Africans the image that immediately springs to mind is Mandela and his long walk to freedom. But how did it happen?

Author Robert Harvey sought to answer the question in his novel The Fall of Apartheid, where the last days of Apartheid play out like a chess game, behind the doors of Mell’s House in cold colonial England.

Hardly the answer you’d expect, but it’s not a fictional tale. From as early as 1985, secret meetings took place between members of the ANC and representatives from the Afrikaaner ruling party, in Somerset, England, far away from the violence and bloodshed taking place in South Africa. At the same time, Nelson Mandela was sending his hidden messages  to Oliver Tambo while still in prison.

It was this political web of secret communiqué that took place behind the scenes that finally ended the National Party’s iron hold on the country.

This is the premise of British director Pete Travis’ (Vantage Point) new political thriller, Endgame.  The film focuses on the relationship that develops between Willie Esterhuyse and Thabo Mbeki, played by American Oscar-winner William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012) respectively. 

Veteran South African actor John Kani (Nothing but the Truth) plays struggle hero Oliver Tambo, while the film also stars Johnny Lee Miller (Æon Flux) as Micheal Young, Clarke Peters (The Wire) as Nelson Mandela, and Sherlock Holmes’ Mark Strong as a surprisingly convincing Dr. Neil Barnard.The Londoner gave a chilling performance as the man who tried in vain to break Nelson Mandela’s will while in prison.

UIP release the film on 23 April 2010 and the timing couldn’t be more portentous, since the death of Eugene ‘Terror’ Terreblanche sent the country reeling back into rising race tensions.

Film Afrika were the South African producers on the film.  Line producer Nina Heyns says the biggest challenge of the shoot was recreating historical events as they actually happened at the time. She praised art director Birrie le Roux and her team of local set decorators, whose work on the set helped recreate South Africa in the 1980s.  The film was mostly shot in South Africa over a period of four weeks, in Khayelitsha; Dornier Estate in Stellenbosch; Woodstock; Pollsmoor Prison; Drakenstein Prison and Stellenbosch University. The rest of the film was shot in Somerset and London in England.

Director Pete Travis describes moving from the big budget Hollywood film set of Vantage Point to the more modest set of Endgame as a “breathe of fresh air,” although he made it quite clear at the start that he wasn’t going to make a cut-and-dry docu-drama. 

“When you make stories about real things, the duty to the audience is to explain clearly what  the film is about, and what we’re trying to say.  Ultimately, this is a film about men jumping off a cliff together into the abyss - trying to make hope work when there seems very little.”

His approach was to heighten the tension to enable the audience to appreciate the risks these men were taking by coming together.

The film was originally planned for a sole Channel 4 release. Producer David Aukin and screenwriter Paula Milner pitched it to the Channel and at the end of their presentation, the executives told them to go ahead and get to work on the project.

Paula spent time in South Africa doing research and meeting key players in the piece, including Thabo Mbeki and Professor Esterhuyse, although she stresses it’s an inspirational piece as opposed to a factual re-enactment.

The resulting film was too good to keep confined to the small screen, and a cinematic release was negotiated.

Leading man Chiwetel Ejiofor was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television at the recent Golden Globes and the film has received nominations from the Royal Television Society for Best Single Drama; the Image Awards for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture; and the Satellite Awards for Best Motion Picture Made for Television.

Sadly, none of the South African team got to go to the Golden Globes but the film is one to be proud of, for the whole country.

Sally Fink