FILM REVIEW: The Forgiven — contrived and inauthentic
A new film based on the TRC does a disservice to SA history, writes Karyn Maughan
The Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) — and the way it attempted to uncover some of apartheid’s most horrific atrocities through the testimony of both perpetrators and witnesses — is a pivotal, albeit controversial, part of the SA story. Anyone who reads the transcripts of the evidence led in those hearings, or any of the multiple excellent books written about the TRC, would know that the way it unfolded, the evidence it uncovered and the attempts to subvert its investigations make for compelling subject matter. But clearly not for the makers of The Forgiven. Instead of using the vast wealth of information available on the TRC to construct an informed and compelling story about a truly exceptional moment in SA history, they focus their truly terrible film on a fictional relationship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu (played by Forest Whitaker) and fictional "apartheid assassin" Piet Blomfield (played by Eric Bana). At the end of this cringeworthy 110 minutes of my life — minutes...
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