December 8, 2009 - How do you describe this? Red Carpet treatment, although yellow because MTN is the primary sponsor, but it was the whose who of the South African Celebrity scene in one place. That was the glitter of the evening at Emperor's Palace. The South African Premier of INVICTUS, the movie about South Africa's astonishing win of the Rugby World Cup in 1995.
This was a real premier screening of a movie, the stuff you only see on TV or in the movies. The security bouncers were there, the TV crews, the press photographers, and we had to walk the carpet while the general public was admiring one with jealousy.
It was great to see people you have met more than 20 years ago, seeing PJ Powers in her ever powerful persona energising the crowds. Most of the team that actually played in the 1995 World Cup was there. Actors and presenters of many South African films and television series mingled as if they were part of the awe to experience one great movie, INVICTUS.
Taking a seat, just behind Derek Watts of Carte Blanche, was an inspiration on its own. As we await the start of the movie, entered Morgan Freeman, and gave que to start the movie in a mere 10 words. Still awesome, seeing such a great figure in the industry in person.
Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela is exemplary. He has managed to capture the greatness of the best leader this Southern African region has ever seen, in fact the world.
The essence of the relationship between Nelson Madela and Francois Pienaar, captain of the South African side, is portrayed with powerful and emotional snippets.
Clint Eastwood has showed us how much we as South Africans have achieved in this world cup. He has managed to capture the euphoria South Africa experienced after the 1995 world cup. It is such a pity that we have lost that exceptional intellectual quality of leadership that made this country so great after 1994.
This movie should serve as a wake up call to all South Africans. We can once again become the great unified nation that we were in 1995 despite all our troubles. We need to make sure that the 2010 Soccer World Cup becomes so much more important to unify South Africa. At the moment we lack that vision completely and we have no leadership that is inspiring all South Africans to unify behind our National Team, even if they do not have a good track record.
We need to become one nation again.
Probably was quite an experience being at such an event. Watched a lot of the previews, and the movie does seem to capture the true emotions that surrounded this great event.
On a side note, something I noticed was the use of a helicopter to fly Mandela around in the movie, that is soooo American-president like(in the movies) ;-)
Posted by: Arné | December 10, 2009 at 07:14