USA: New Tim Robbins drama about terrorism in apartheid South Africa, "Catch a Fire", opens

Oscar winner Tim Robbins and Derek Luke star in "Catch a Fire," the true story of Patrick Chamusso, an easy-going oil-refinery foreman who is wrongly accused of sabotage, and whose brutal torture at the hands of white policemen turns him into a militant for the African National Congress (ANC). "Yes I am still feeling because those places are the places which I went through, the torture I went through, the same house that they filmed the film is there. So really it goes back, even now I don't sleep at night, because I go through this. I am glad that tomorrow this is finished I won't be watching this film. Maybe when I get a DVD and then I will watch it slow by slow," Patrick Chamusso, said on his first trip to the United States at the Los Angeles premiere of the film based on his life. Australian director Philip Noyce switched from making action blockbusters to movies with more of a social conscience like this film set in the early 1980s in apartheid-era South Africa. Luke, known for his breakout role in "Antwone Fisher" lived in South Africa for seven weeks prior to filming, getting to know Chamusso and mastering his accent. But it was an experience he had during filming that changed Luke's perspective on the story. "While I was visiting South Africa I was in Robben Island I was handed a key and it happened to be Nelson Mandela's key and I went in there and I was asked to lay down. A long story short when they close the cell it brought the beauty and the closer to who Patrick really was so yeah it was amazing," said Derek Luke at the film premiere he attended with his pregnant wife Sophia. In "Fire," Patrick, played by New Jersey native Luke, is a devoted husband to his wife Precious played by Bonnie Henna, father to two little girls, and coach of a local boys' soccer team. "Wow you know growing up post-apartheid in South Africa I always kind of felt like I didn't have a deeper understanding of what happened that was my own. So this for film me brought closure, I was able to look at what have achieved and move on with a sense of confidence knowing that I know what to forget and I know what to remember," Bonnie Henna told Reuters. Henna, one of the few lead South African actors in the film said that she did not mind Americans taking the lead roles because she says as an actress she hopes to portray an American in the near future. The son of a migrant worker from Mozambique, Patrick keeps his head down in the oppressive apartheid regime, and while resistance begins to build among many blacks, he remains apolitical. Robbins stars as Nic Vos, a white colonel in the country's Police Security Branch who struggles to maintain order in an increasingly volatile environment. Robbins delivers an icy portrayal of Vos as a man just doing his job. Much of his time on location was spent talking to former Security Branch officers. "I tend to look more at scripts now then whether or not I am the lead in the movie and it was a beautiful script. It was telling a story that was really important to tell the story of South Africa right now. What happens when you come out of years of oppression and how you act when you are released that's been delicate. Very very rare in history that a leader would then after all these years of imprisonment and oppression would come out with such a large heart preaching forgiveness to move forward. That was reflected in the story of Patrick Chamusso which is reflected in "Catch a Fire" and I wanted to be a part of that," said Tim Robbins at the Los Angeles premiere. After an attack by the ANC's military wing in June 1980 on the Secunda oil refinery, Patrick wrongly comes under suspicion and he and Precious are arrested and tortured by Vos's henchmen. The Chamussos are freed, but the brutality of their experience leaves Patrick so scarred, he can no longer remain neutral and abandons his family to join the exiled ANC in Mozambique. Patrick's plan for revenge goes awry and he is arrested and jailed on Robben Island, where he remains for 10 years along with other political prisoners including Nelson Mandela. The films message is as much of hardship as it is forgiveness as Chamusso believes that 'If you forgive someone, you really live in peace'. The film world premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and opens in the United States on Friday (October 27).

ITN Source | November 2, 2006

Tags:. .revenge. .philip. .militant. .lukes. .abandons