El Estado contra Mandela y los otros

This is a documentary on the trial of Nelson Mandela and his co-conspirators for their role in planning to overthrow the South African apartheid government in 1962-1963. While there are 256 hours of audio recorded at the trial, no video recordings exist so stylised black and white animation is used as a backdrop for the voice track. Interspersed amongst these sections are contemporary interviews with those co-defendants who are still alive, their offspring, their lawyers and Winnie Mandela, as well as news footage from the period. The film may have some slow parts in the middle and not all of the points addressed are of equal interest but the emotional highs it does reach (especially at the beginning and the end of the movie), the pertinence of the subject, and the fact that a few of the historical figures participating in the film died either in production or soon after the documentary's release serve to highlight the importance of this film and why it needed to be made at this moment in history. Concerning my recommendation, I feel compelled to share that, as a child of the 80s, my father worshipped civil rights and anti-apartheid revolutionaries like Mandela and Stephen Biko (and those who sang their praises: some of my first memories of music are the Artists Against Apartheid 'Sun City' protest song [Google it on YouTube to see Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Lou Reed, Run DMC, Peter Gabriel, U2, George Clinton, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Cliff, Gil-Scott Heron, and Joey Ramone perform in a video directed by Jonathan Demme] and Peter Gabriel's 'Biko' is in my DNA makeup). All of that to say, human rights in all of its forms is a subject I hold dearly. If this is true for you, also, then _The State Against Mandela and the Others_ is a worthy watch. Amandla! Ngawethu!