Khalo Matabane’s hour long documentary explores a more personal and relationship with the iconic Nelson Mandela, an idealistic relationship that left Matabane and many disappointed. Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me, explores the legacy left behind by Mandela by picking at the various promises left by Mandela himself. Mandela’s legacy is analysed by various activists, critiques and world leaders.
The film begins with the release of Mandela after his 27 year prison sentence, with was symbolically important for the then suffering black population, Matabane narrates his ideas of the South African ‘revolution’ (that never happened) while highlighting its actual reality. Referring to Mandela as ‘Tata’, Matabane asks questions about the ideals that Mandela stood for; freedom, forgiveness and reconciliation.
The striking features of this film include the participatory nature of the director; the documentary comes across as a novel narrated by Matabane with appearances from various characters in different chapters. These characters, including the His Holiness the Dalai Lama and former SA journalists, help answer the questions posed by Matabane (that are symbolically aimed at Mandela). The film makes use of very creative angles and sequences, the most striking one (for me) being the sequence of the bathing baby, narrated by Matabane explaining the newly born democracy of South Africa. The rest of the film makes use of similar sequences, artistic yet symbolically revealing and relevant to the narrative. Matabane’s personality and professional training is evident in this film, he also makes good use of simple but effective filming techniques, such as ‘the rule of thirds’ in his interviews.
The style of the film, allows the viewer to be as inquisitive and curious about Matabane’s questions as he is, as the viewer, we being to feel robbed of our freedoms and other promises given by Mandela. Matabane does not trivialise Mandela’s efforts, but rather seeks the definitions of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness in relation to the current social and economic standing of South Africa then and now.
The film explores the freedom of South Africa then and now, by examining the divide between the rich and the poor, and although there is a growing black middle class (as explained by interviewees in the film) the economic divide is still intense, in that a small minority of South Africans have benefitted from freedom. In fact, SA has the greatest economic divide in the world.
This film aimed at exploring the legacy left by the late Nelson Mandela, not to belittle the 67 years that Mandela dedicated to fighting freedom, but to question the current state of the ‘promise land’ that is a democratic South Africa.
Well, of course I want to make film! 