MOVIES
ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: Biopic honours struggle hero Mahlangu
‘The acting is superb, the film is beautifully shot, the dialogue is rich and styled in traditional African griot’
I recently watched the remarkable biopic Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu. Nearly a decade in the making, and directed by Mandla Dube, who also produced an earlier documentary and television series on Mahlangu, it is uncompromisingly South African in its casting, directing and cinematography. The acting is superb, the film is beautifully shot, the dialogue is rich and the story of a remarkably courageous young man who gives up his life for the cause is well told in the tradition of the African griot. Dube sees Kalushi not as an anti-apartheid movie, but as a love story and coming-of-age tale. Mahlangu is a 19-year-old student and street hawker selling vegetables. He comes of age during the 1976 Soweto uprising. Mahlangu is gradually pushed to join the ANC’s armed struggle in exile by an incident in which a white policeman beats him up and urinates on him. His political awakening, beliefs and identity evolve gradually. He spent six months in a Mozambican refugee camp before rec...
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