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[WOMAN SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[CONTINUES SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
NELSON MANDELA: Never, never
and never again shall it be
that this beautiful earth will again experience
the oppression of one by another.
[PEOPLE CHEERING]
[CATTLE LOWING]
[DOGS BARKING]
Cattle thieves.
Johan, where are they now?
[STATIC CRACKLING]
Johan, can you hear me?
BOY [OVER RADIO]: Uncle Boetie! Uncle Boetie, are you there?
It's me, Inge. Pa's gone after them.
Ma can see them from the door. She's says... What, Ma?
She says Pa's trying to cut them off in the bakkie.
This is the new South Africa you admire so much, Anna.
[GUNSHOT]
[GRUNTS]
Throw him in the bakkie.
[PROTESTING IN AFRIKAANS]
We always give them a warning,
but if they run away, we have no choice. We have to shoot.
You didn't kill anyone, did you?
No.
Only got the one guy in the leg.
I hate them for forcing me to point a gun at another human being
and pull the trigger, Anna.
I hate them for that.
[WATER SPLASHING]
You should let the police handle this.
They're not our police anymore, Edward.
It's not our country anymore.
It's open season on whites now.
Now, don't make us wait until next Christmas before you visit again.
Don't worry. I'll bring the boys back on my own next time.
Anna's gonna be away covering the hearings.
Bloody nonsense.
You're a poet, Anna. Why are you doing this?
Because I believe in it.
She does, with a passion.
You've spoken out enough against your own people, Anna.
When are you going to stop taking their side against us?
You should have nothing to do with the hearings.
They are trying to break us,
blaming everything on the Afrikaner.
It's not about breaking people, Pa. It's about finding out the truth.
WILLEM: I don't want to hear their lies.
Where's the Christmas spirit, gone so soon?
Don't listen to them, Anna.
It is good that you do this. I will testify myself.
Good, Anderson. Good.
Anderson, it's not your business.
It's everybody's business.
Good-bye and merry Christmas.
Peace.
[LAUGHING]
What, doesn't your baby brother get a kiss?
Anna, don't leave like this. Give Poppy a kiss.
- No. - Hey.
Remember where you're from, Anna.
[LAUGHING]
Have a nice trip.
ANNA: They are my blood, the marrow of my bones,
and this is my landscape.
This is what I'm made of.
I cannot escape it. I cannot deny it...
yet I must.
Put your seat belts on, please.
Hey.
- Hi. - Hi.
I'm Dumisani Mkhalipi, SABC.
|'m your sound engineer for the hearings.
Pleased to meet you, Dumisani.
Just call me Dumi. Can I give you a hand?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Hey, morning, Dumi. - Morning, Sis.
Amnesty applications coming in thick and fast.
Oh... [LAUGHING]
- Anna, meet the boss. - Oh, stop it, Dumi.
I hate the word “boss.” It sounds so reactionary.
Felicia Rheinhardt, our editor.
How do you do, Anna? So glad to have you on board.
You know, I had every intention of swotting up on your poetry last night,
but I fell asleep halfway through the first one.
Earth is the color of blood Blood is the color of earth
[LAUGHING] No, you lost me there, I'm afraid. So here's the deal.
Sound bites are 20 seconds. Voice reports, 40 seconds.
That's all we've got to grab the listeners by the balls.
We also have a contract with public radio in America.
Not bad, hey? So don't pull any punches.
Okay, okay. Local journalists over here, foreign media over there.
- Anna Malan. - There'll be a press conference
with the commissioners at 4:30 upstairs in the Mandela Room.
You call this justice?
Allowing the perpetrators to go free and denying victim's revenge?
Yes, I do. It is the justice of peace and compassion.
The justice that desires to bring people together,
not drive them apart.
Jack Marlon, Melbourne Herald Sun.
Reverend Mzondo,
since the Afrikaners were in control of both the police and the army,
would it be true to say, sir, that they are most to blame for the atrocities?
Apportionment of blame
is not the purpose of the commission, sir.
Langston Whitfield, Washington Post.
Since only whites benefited during the apartheid system,
shouldn't all whites be held accountable for the crimes committed in its name?
We must not lose sight of the fact, sir,
that whites were killed too.
Many black people have also applied for amnesty.
Anna Malan, SABC Radio.
Haven't South Africans specifically rejected Western justice
in favor of traditional African justice,
which is about reconciliation, and not revenge?
How can there be reconciliation when 90 percent of the country's wealth
is still in the hands of the white minority?
We have a long, hard road ahead of us,
but who would have believed that South Africa could have achieved what it has?
Adam Hartley, London Guardian.
Given that most of the victims are black, does this mean, sir,
that black people have some special capacity for forgiveness?
Or that white people have a special capacity for getting away with murder.
[CROWD MURMURS, LAUGHS]
Thank you so much, everybody, for coming,
but that's all we have time for now.
Thanks, everybody. See you at the first hearings in Transkei.
Excuse me, sir.
I-I just want to set the record straight.
I think maybe you don't understand what we're trying to do here.
Oh, on the contrary, I think I do.
You're Afrikaans, right?
So?
It's not about blame. If's about...
We... We're trying to find the truth.
South Africans want peace,
and we're all making compromises.
And what compromises have you whites made?
Blacks can sit on your park benches now?
MAN: Langston!
Excuse me.
Listen, when this is all over,
we can't jump on a plane and go home.
- We have to live together. - Yeah.
I can see why they want to keep this.
MAN: Welcome. Hi.
- Whoa, look at this place. - Oh, yeah.
- Want a drink? Yeah? - Jack Daniel's.
Jack Daniel's.
Are you the guy from The Washington Post?
Yeah, man, that's me.
- Do Americans care about this? - Well, they should.
Well, it's good that you're here. Welcome.
Thank you.
I was in a hotel for three weeks in Kigali.
I was in Burma, lost, you understand.
Dumisani Mkhalipi.
My friends call me Dumi, and my enemies too.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
- Let me buy you a drink. - Yes, please.
[CELL PHONE RINGS]
Hello. Anna.
Yeah, I've got a tape here.
I'm at the Rhodes Place Hotel,
and I'm having a drink with Malcolm X.
[LAUGHING]
Okay, bye-bye.
So, what do you do, man?
I'm a sound engineer for Anna Malan.
- That's your partner. - Yes.
- And how long you been with her? - We just met today.
- Get the fuck out of here. - And go away.
You a trip.
[CHATTERING]
I'm not a criminal.
I was a devoted servant of the state,
and I call upon my superiors to acknowledge that...
Now, there's the main reason my editor sent me over here.
DUMI: Even now, just looking at him on TV
makes me want to shit my pants.
What I wouldn't give to get in a room with him.
I can arrange it.
For real? That right?
Yep.
I have my contacts from before.
Hey, Anna. There's my partner.
It's our secret, bro. It's between you and me.
Don't tell her.
I really have to go, Dumi. Felicia wants...
Oh, forget about Felicia.
Sit down, chill out.
You know, what you need is a big whiskey.
- Anything for you, Langs? - "m good.
Coming up.
So tell me...
what is African justice?
You just have to say, “I'm sorry”?
You mean the American journalist hasn't heard of ubuntu?
Nope. Enlighten me.
Oh, why do you care what it means?
You've already made up your mind.
Don't make assumptions about me.
Don't you make assumptions about me.
Why did you ask if I was Afrikaans?
Because you don't sound Chinese.
Really?
Here we are.
- The tape. - Oh, thanks, Dumi.
I really have to go.
See you on the bus tomorrow? Bye.
I guess this is mine now, huh?
[POURING]
- Cheers. - Cheers.
[CHOIR SINGING “LIZALIS' INDINGA?]
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
Anna.
Look what Langston has rented.
A 5 Series.
Isn't she a beauty?
What's the name of that song they're singing?
- I's a hymn. - Really?
Lizalis'idinga lako. “Let Your Will Be Done.”
So, where was God when they needed him?
He was on our side.
Look, two places there.
It's all right.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
Blessed Lord,
may we snatch the victims from the death of forgetfulness.
May we tell their history.
May we complete their ending.
- Amen. - CROWD: Amen.
Mrs. Virginia Tabata, mother of Nyameko Tabata,
please tell your story.
After my son disappeared,
we were told there was a policeman in Port Elizabeth
who had this thing in a bottle on his desk.
When he was asked what it was...
he answered,
“It's a baboon's hand,
a bottled hand of a communist.”
I was told that before they killed my son,
they cut off his hands
so he could not be fingerprinted.
[CROWD GRUMBLES]
How do I say this?
Give me back my son's hand so I have something to bury!
ANNA. In their Sunday best they come,
mothers and wives, searching for a place to put their grief.
Truth has become a woman.
Everybody recognizes her, and yet nobody knows her.
[WOMEN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[MZONDO CLEARS THROAT]
We will now hear the testimony of Mrs. Albertina Sobandla.
Please go ahead, Mrs. Sobandla.
Hubert had been missing for two weeks.
I was worried because of his weak heart,
and he left his medicine behind on the kitchen table.
I went to the police
and begged them to tell me what had happened to him.
They wouldn't.
They laughed at me.
Sobandla wasn't charged with anything?
The police could detain people without charge.
- Those are your laws? - Not my laws,
the laws of the country.
To this day...
I do not know what happened to him.
You must tell me.
Let me remind you, Sergeant Dreyer,
to get amnesty, you must make a full confession
and prove that you were politically motivated.
The decision was made to get rid of Hubert Sobandla.
He was a... thorn in the flesh.
We were instructed to make a plan.
Make a plan?
What did you understand by those words?
Well, what we always understood when orders came down to us:
eliminate.
Permanently remove from society, “make a plan.”
It all meant the same thing.
Kill him. Nothing else.
Just, uh, murder Hubert Sobandla.
[SOBS]
I had nothing personally against him, sir.
I was just following orders.
Whose orders?
We would just get told, “You have to take the guy out.”
It was necessary.
To stab him 37 times?
[CROWD MURMURS]
Well, Hubert fought like a tiger.
How does a man with a heart condition fight like a tiger?
Well, he was fighting for his life.
[WAILING]
DREYER: I wish to apologize to Mrs. Sobandla.
I am very sorry.
I've told the truth.
|'m asking for amnesty.
[CROWD SINGING “SENZENINA”]
Dumi, so why is she crying, and they're not?
It is not a surprise to us, Langston.
We did our crying years ago.
Severed hands and graphic accounts
of assassination by security police marked testimony today
as the country faces the brutal facts of apartheid.
[SPEAKING IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES]
The heartfelt cry of Albertina Sobandla
ushered in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings today.
[STOPS TAPE]
[MRS. SOBANDLA WAILING]
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey, you!
- Hi. - Hello, Lizzie.
BOY: Ow! Stop it!
Anna.
BOY: Ow! Stop it!
- [BOY] Stop following me around! - Jonty hit me!
What happened?
My nose is bleeding.
Here, put it on your nose. Hold tight.
Jonty! Come down here this moment.
It's not fair. He's following me everywhere!
- [PHONE RINGING] - Come here!
Yes. Hold on, please.
- It's for you. - Oh, thanks. Yeah?
Hello, Anna.
Hi, Felicia.
Congratulations, doll. We love the scream.
I tell you, it gave me goose bumps.
Well done, lovey. Bye.
Did you bring us presents?
Yes.
[DOG BARKING]
Stop.
Around.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
So they sent me a black man. Well, well.
You have a problem with that?
[CHUCKLES]
I've got nothing against blacks.
What do you want from me, Mr. Whitfield?
[SIGHS]
What you did.
Who you did it to.
Who told you to do it.
No, let me tell you what you really want.
You want to get into the mind of a man who's done all these terrible things
to your brothers, yes?
You know what your bosses say.
You're a psychopath who murdered and tortured for the fun of it.
It had nothing to do with them.
Do you think I'm a psychopath?
Look, Mr. De Jager...
they've thrown you to the wolves.
You're going down,
but wouldn't you like to take them down with you?
Precisely.
So we have a common purpose.
Let us exploit each other, Mr. Whitfield.
[CHATTERING]
The commission has moved to the tiny Transkei village of Qunu,
where local security police conducted their reign of terror,
claiming that the local people were harboring terrorists.
The children are having a day off
as the school is being used for the hearings.
[CHATTERING]
Morning.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
I'm sorry, I don't speak Afrikaans.
- Have they started yet? - No, not yet.
Need a light?
Thank you.
My pleasure.
MZONDO: Welcome, Mr. Zobufa.
Sergeant Schmidt, can you tell us
precisely how you applied electric shocks.
We used those little portable generators, sir,
one horsepower.
You make the subject get undressed.
Everything off?
Yes, sir. They must be naked.
[CROWD GRUMBLES]
You attach wires to the subject, then you pour water over them.
Water is a good conductor of electricity.
Mr. Zobufa, would you tell us your story, please?
They tied my genital parts...
- [CROWD GRUMBLES] - with wire.
He!
It was him!
Then he shocked me, all parts.
My body was turned to be completely useless.
That week, the machine took away from me...
[SHOUTS IN AFRIKAANS]
He wants his manhood back.
I am not an electrician by trade, sir.
I did not know it would do that to the subject.
And if you had?
I would have lost my pension had I refused an order.
[CROWD CLAMORS]
ANNA: They rise up like the dead on the Day of Reckoning,
voice after voice,
story after story.
How obediently we sat in that schoolhouse
and learned a lesson, a history lesson,
the hidden history of a shameful past.
DUMI: Hey, Kenny, whoa.
Anna. The bus is leaving.
Anna.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
You don't smoke.
[SIGHS]
You don't smoke.
[SIGHS]
I need a drink.
I know a place.
I got a car.
[LAUGHING]
Wait till you see this dude at the bottle shop.
[LAUGHS]
He got so fat, he can't get out of the door no more.
I'M serious.
He has to live in there, and they send the food in there.
[YELLS]
[AIR HISSING]
You okay? You?
No jack.
Great. Stuck in the bloody hemadulus.
- LANGSTON: Stuck in the what? - The hemadulus, the back of beyond.
The bloody middle of nowhere.
What do we do now, hey?
- "M going to call a tow truck. - Ha-ha.
- Hey, as soon as I find a signal. - Wait, wait. I'll find a jack.
Don't be bloody ridiculous, Dumi.
Say no more. I'll be back with jack.
LANGSTON: Wow.
It's really true what they say about the African sky.
It's fucking big.
Ah, who would have thought.
Stuck in the... What did you call it again?
Hemadaulus.
Stuck in the hemadulus with an Afrikaner.
You know, you never finished telling me about African justice.
What exactly does “ubuntu” mean?
It means we're all connected.
What hurts you hurts me.
What affects you affects me, affects everyone.
If Africans want to praise someone, they say “unbuntu.”
It means they think the person is generous
and compassionate.
It's all about compassion and forgiveness.
Quite foreign to an American, I'm sure.
- That's African-American. - "m not talking about skin.
Well, I am.
See, skin is everything.
It's all about skin.
Skin is what draws the line in the sand.
As an Afrikaner, you should know that better than anyone else.
Don't make assumptions about me.
Don't start with the assumption shit again.
- Look, I'll stop if you'll stop, okay? - Fine.
[CAR HORN HONKING]
Hey! Dumi's back.
|'m back. [LAUGHING]
[HUMMING]
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
- Keep the change. - ANNA: Ubuntu.
Yo nana... Nuba nu...
Uno. Unbuntu.
Unbuntu. Yeah, unbuntu.
Yes, but you have to say it with feeling like that.
Unbuntu. You have to mean it.
Thanks, man. Unbuntu.
- Yeah. - No, no, no, no, no.
- That's going to take a few days. - Cheers.
Mmm.
It's ironic, you teaching me about Africa.
Why not? I'm African.
No, no, no, no, no. Not in my book.
And definitely not in any Tarzan movies I ever saw.
I belong to this continent.
How do you belong to a continent?
I would die for it.
[SIGHS]
Mmm. Mm-hm.
Well, I guess I don't belong anywhere, then.
See, if you're black in America,
every day of your life,
you're made to feel like you don't belong.
In fact, they keep trying to send us back here.
Why would I die for a country where |'m not welcome?
Because it's the only one you have, and you think one day
things will be different for your children.
You got kids?
Uh, yes, three boys.
Me too. Mine's nine.
He is soccer crazy.
I try to make it to all the matches,
but, you know, travel, and, you know...
The little ones always miss you.
Yeah.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
- Dumi! - YO!
Let's roll.
LANGSTON: Uh-oh. Oh, no. No!
Yo!
Uh-oh.
Langston!
Oh, no, no, no!
Oh, damn! Damn!
I locked the keys in the car!
Oh, no! Damn!
Oh, man...
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
Oh, man, locked the keys in the car.
[CAR HORN HONKS]
What's she doing?
Hey! The Ritz.
Just see if they got a coat hanger.
I-I can break in the car.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
DUMI; Give me some more!
[BOTH LAUGHING]
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
- Is he dead? - Yeah.
Dead drunk.
Did you tell that woman I was married to Oprah?
[GRUNTING]
There. I've made some room for you.
[SIGHS]
[DUMI SNORING]
Shut up, Dumi.
[SNORES]
[LAUGHING]
Dumi.
[SNORES]
Does this place qualify as the hemadulus?
Mmm... Not strictly speaking.
To qualify as a true hemadulus,
there can't be anything else around.
So there's varying degrees of hemadulus”?
Yeah, it's all very subtle.
[DUMI CONTINUES SNORING]
Shall we have a cigarette?
Yeah, all right.
No, we don't smoke officially.
I know, but it's something to do.
Okay.
Maybe we shouldn't.
Yeah, maybe we shouldn't.
[CONTINUES SNORING]
[LAUGHING]
What's so funny?
Oh, I was just thinking.
A black man sleeping with a white woman in South Africa.
A few years ago, I could have gotten life in prison
for doing something like that.
What about a white woman sleeping with two black men?
What would you have gotten?
[SIGHS] Possibly a lot of satisfaction.
[LAUGHS]
Good night, Langston.
Good night, Anna.
[SIGHS]
LANGSTON: Why do you think apartheid was necessary?
Just simple mathematics.
Four million of us, 13 million of them.
When you're under constant attack from terrorists,
the normal rules no longer apply.
You have to do what you have to do.
- Including torture. - Correct. To get information.
That's why we started the training facility
for askares out there in the hemadulus.
Do you know what an askare is?
Uh, yes, I do.
When you captured a guerrilla...
Terrorist.
You beat the shit out of them until they betrayed their comrades.
- Then they had nowhere else to go. - Yeah, they'd change sides,
and they made the best killers for us.
Why?
They'd sell their souls.
Betrayal. When you despise yourself,
it makes it much easier to despise others. You must know that.
Imagine, Langston. Imagine if your people hadn't been taken across the sea.
Imagine if you'd stayed in Africa.
What would you have become?
A terrorist?
Or an askare?
Tortured to death by you, probably.
[LAUGHS]
Or me tortured to death by you?
And why not?
Like my mate, Eddie Fishier,
captured by the ANC in Namibia. When they were finished with him,
you couldn't tell if he were a boy or a girl...
and Eddie was a big guy.
I don't hold it against them, not at all.
All's fair in love and war.
Five to six.
WOMAN [ON TAPE]: They had pulled out his tongue.
[ON RADIO] He was mutilated.
The only way I could tell it was my son
was by the feet.
I know my son's feet.
WOMAN 2 [ON RADIO]: His beard had been pulled out on one side of his face.
They'd torn out one hair at a time.
The white policeman said,
'We've got you now, you Kaffir!”
My son was bleeding heavily from the mouth.
WOMAN 2 [ON RADIO]: / heard shots.
I ran, I slipped, I fell.
I crawled out of the front door.
My boy, my child dreams of this.
He wakes up crying for his father.
ANNA [ON RADIO]: Every mother's worst nightmare,
powerless lo ease the pain of a grieving child.
This is Anna Malan for SABC, signing off.
[BAND PLAYING]
Hey, Langston.
Page seven, Tony?
The bottom of page fucking seven?
Remember, you're the one who sent me over here.
At least show me the respect of not burying what I write
in the back of the goddamn paper.
Too re...? Too remote?
Since when is police brutality too remote from the lives of the American people?
Oh, I'm sorry, Tony. I must be losing my mind.
How can it be news when the victims are black?
Goddamn it.
[SIGHS] Nobody gives a shit, Dumi.
As long as it's black folk getting killed, nobody gives a shit.
It's not that simple, man. It's not always black-and-white.
Sometimes it's gray. Sometimes it's fucking gray.
- Sometimes it's fucking grey? - Hey, Langston.
'M only joking.
It's just the beer talking, okay? We cool?
Hey, Kenny. Hey, Anna!
Let's show these people how to dance.
MAN 1: I'd like to see that.
MAN 2: Hey, man, coming for something to eat?
A little later, thanks.
[DANCE MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING IN AFRIKAANS]
[WHOOPING]
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
Anna. Anna, it's for you.
Some woman, she listens to you on the radio,
- and she won't talk to anyone else. - Hello? Ja?
I have something bad.
For you, please.
What?
Your daughter's body?
Body?
DE JAGER: We took her up into the hills.
You have to harden your heart.
She had valuable information which needed to be extracted.
There she is.
LANGSTON: You raped her?
DE JAGER: We kept her naked for three days.
It wasn't enough. She just wouldn't talk.
[WAILING]
[CAMERA CLICKING]
DE JAGER: She asked us for some panties.
Of course we said no.
She found a plastic bag.
She made herself some panties.
We asked her to kneel... shot her through the top of her head.
[WAILING CONTINUES]
God, she was brave.
[CHILDREN SHOUTING, WATER SPLASHING]
They're trying to convince me to electrify my fence...
and then they want 500 grand just to come around once a week. Uh-uh.
MAN: Then in six months, they want to sell you another system.
If anybody is left here in six months.
- Guess who's emigrating. - Hmm?
- Dave Margolis, gone. - No.
Ja, he's got this fabulous job in Florida.
Well, I guess that's the end of cardiac surgery at Viddsted.
MAN: How's the architecture department, Ed?
In desperate need of a transfusion.
[ALL LAUGHING]
Can you rape with a political motive?
When the security police raped women in detention,
they justified it
by claiming it was necessary to extract information.
So do you think you can rape with a political motive?
Well, speaking as a lawyer,
I suppose... you can rape with political motive...
uh, if...
For example, if rape is used as a torture
to extract information, then, logically...
rape can be...
politically motivated.
So you think rape can...
Can be logical?
Would, um, anyone like some coffee?
No, I think we'd better be going now.
It's getting late. Amy?
- Thank you. That was wonderful... - Technically speaking,
it's kind of a difficult one to... You know, to get around.
I mean, you have to have...
LANGSTON: Just as the Nazis claim
that following orders exonerated them from guilt,
so the South African perpetrators
used that same defense.
Is this the human condition,
that men anywhere will willingly commit atrocities
So long as the law allows it?
- Dumi. - [PHONE RINGS]
- Bam! Front page. - Yes? Anna Malan.
Anna.
The story about the mother who goes to the mortuary and finds her son
with his intestines all hanging out.
You didn't say she shit on the floor, did you?
No, I did not.
I said she slipped on the floor, in all the blood.
[FELICIA CHUCKLES] Oh, thank God. I was worried.
We don't allow swearing on radio.
- Anyway, thanks, lovey. Bye. - Bye.
Lovey.
Anna, we on air in five minutes.
South African holocaust, a genocide?
“Every white South African
is as guilty as the perpetrators themselves”?
How dare you write this sensationalist crap?
You come barging into my country with your own fucking agenda!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, now.
You're the one with the agenda, Anna.
Trying to prove you're not responsible for what your government's been doing
in your name for the past 40 years.
“I didn't know.” Now, where have I heard that?
You didn't know
- about people being electrocuted? - No.
- Hands in bottles? - No.
You didn't know about tongues being pulled out?
What do you want me to say, “Yes, I knew'?
“Yes, I saw things”?
Is that what you want? Yes, yes, yes?
So I knew things, we all knew things...
but not the fucking details.
You call cutting a man's hands off details?
You call shooting a woman in the vagina a fucking detail?
Shut up. I don't have to listen to this.
You do have to listen. You have to listen to every word
so you'll never be able to say “I didn't know” again.
- You fuck! Fuck! - Stop it, Anna. Stop it! Stop it!
DUMI: Annal!
You're on the air in three minutes!
Come on, come, come.
By telling their stories and sharing their pain,
the victims find some measure of relief.
This is Anna Malan for SABC, signing off.
|'m sorry.
No, you're right.
I was raised to treat black people with respect.
I did what I could.
Yeah. Drink your coffee.
ANNA: How far can we go
into every corner of this land?
How many more stories?
How much more pain can you take on board?
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
MAN: We had been living on that land for centuries
before they arrived.
We tried peaceful means for many years, but they never listened to us.
They forced us to take up a gun.
[CLEARS THROAT] Mr. Van Der Weyden,
please tell us your story.
There had already been three attacks in the district,
So when we traveled,
we traveled in convoy for safety.
We were coming home from church,
and my wife was in the front truck with the children.
I was in the truck behind with my brother.
We had the guns.
The truck went through the gate...
[SOBBING]
The truck went through the gate and over the land mine.
Do you know how it feels to look for your 3-year-old,
your youngest boy,
never, never to find him,
because he's gone into thin air?
Do you feel...
you want to... continue?
The next day, we went to look for my wife's leg.
We knew it was there somewhere.
He went to look for his wife's leg?
VAN DER WEYDEN: What we found was a piece of my son's skull.
Some of his brains were on it.
I picked it up in a tissue and took it home to bury it.
ANNA: Why did he bury the brains?
WOMAN: Shh. Be quiet.
- [LAUGHING] - Anna.
[MOUTHING]
Excuse me. Mr. Chairman, I have a question.
Come on, come on, come on.
[GIGGLING]
I feel a fool.
You shouldn't.
I've never lost control like that.
Hey...
it happens.
Thanks.
[SIGHS]
All the words they used to humiliate people...
the orders to kill people and to torture people...
were given in my own language, Afrikaans...
the language of my heart...
the language in which I wrote about love, beauty...
tenderness.
What does that make me?
Oh, 'm so ashamed.
Don't be.
[MOANING]
[BOYS PLAYING]
MAN: This is a great learning experience for a young fellow.
BOY: He scores! Yay!
- EDWARD: Anna? - [GASPS]
I'm back.
I's heavy.
Make no mistake...
there is no greater pain than dishonor.
People at the top walked away from us.
“We'll get you your amnesty,” they said, “but from now on, we know nothing.”
“You're on your own,” they said.
What's my new rank in the new South Africa, hey? Not colonel.
Perpetrator, psychopath, lunatic.
I was a professional. I was a hero.
If it was a difficult case, they used to fly De Jager in.
Well, how did they get the message to you?
A wink of an eye, nod of a head, wave of a hand.
Come on.
We understood what it meant. “Take them out.”
Oh, you can do better than that. I need proof.
- Anna. Hey. - Hi.
- How was your weekend at home? - Fine, fine.
Very good. And you? Your weekend?
Great. Dumi took me shopping, look.
Ah. Suits you.
Ah...
LANGSTON: Ah. “The truth shall set us free.”
Dumi, do you think these people are hungry for the truth or just plain hungry?
Maybe both.
And there are the perpetrators.
As in most cases, they are white, and they are male.
This child, Bedamakeba,
has not spoken one word since the day
he saw his parents murdered in front of his eyes.
[CROWD GRUMBLES]
I started to strangle Mr. Makeba.
He struggled violently.
Sergeant Schempers smothered him with a pillow over his face...
then I fired four shots with my AK through the pillow.
There was blood and feathers everywhere.
The woman was hiding under the bed.
Sergeant Schempers killed her.
We didn't know the boy was there.
He just stood there... looking at me.
I could see his mother's body lying there.
I pointed my gun right at him. I was going to shoot.
He didn't move.
He just stood there, staring.
I couldn't do it.
I defied an order.
I can't sleep.
When I close my eyes, all I see is him.
I'll look after him.
I'll pay his school fees.
Please...
let me do something.
Please.
[MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO]
Oranje Vrystaat. The Orange Free State.
[HUMMING]
Hey, Langs, these free-state Afrikaners
were the worst ones before.
Your people, eh, Anna?
Oh, right. If you mean is this where my family's from, yes.
Did I grow up here? Yes. Do I know them? Yes.
Do I agree with their politics? No.
Sister, I'm just joking. Can't you take a joke?
- No. - No?
Ah-ah-ah-ah, children, children,
don't make me stop this car.
[PEOPLE SINGING]
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
You have to disperse now. Go home.
Some of the commissioners were delayed,
and the hearings are postponed until tomorrow.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
[SINGING]
[SINGING CONTINUES]
- Postponed. - What?
- It's postponed. - Oh, come on.
We can stay at my parents' farm, if you like.
It's just a couple of miles from here.
[STUTTERS] I... No way.
Anna... Sorry, I mean, thank you very much,
but I'll go back with the others to Joveck.
Guess who's coming to dinner, huh?
[LAUGHING]
What's so funny?
- You coming? - Yeah.
Let's go.
[CATTLE LOWING]
[CAR HORN HONKS]
Come in. Come on in.
Hi, Anna.
[DOGS BARKING]
ANNA: Randy. Prince.
- Okay, so sorry. - ANNA: Get down.
That's right. Get away.
These dogs are very stupid.
- Anderson, hey. - Hello, Anna. Ah.
This is Mr. Whitfield. He's come all the way from America
to write about the hearings.
Anderson's worked for our family forever.
I was born on this farm, sir.
I's my great pleasure to meet you, sir.
It is good that you come to write the truth about this thing we have.
Annal!
- Anna. - ANNA: Hey, Ma.
Hello, Mr. Whitfield. Welcome.
- Thank you. - Do come in.
I'm so sorry about the dogs.
That's quite all right. Anderson rescued me.
Yeah, you can't be too careful these days.
- I hear you on the radio, Anna. - You do?
I sneak a listen every now and then when no one is around.
I won't tell Pa.
([FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)]
Are you the American journalist?
Yes, sir, I am.
Langston Whitfield. Pleasure to meet you.
Willem Malan.
I think you have a very bad impression of us Afrikaners by now.
Uh... Yes, sir, I'm afraid so.
You don't know us.
Willem.
Your namesake, Langston Hughes.
Yes, he also happens to be my favorite writer.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird That...
That cannot fly
I met him, you know...
at a poetry conference in Paris in 1955.
He was the first black writer I'd ever met.
He was wonderful. He had such a...
wicked sense of humor.
That's a signed copy.
You can have it.
- Oh, no, no, I... - Please. Please do.
I's my pleasure.
I'd like you to have it.
Why, thank you.
Black or white, Mr. Whitfield?
- Beg your pardon? - Coffee.
He likes it black, Ma.
Oh, that's Anna when she was about 10 years old.
This is Anton and Anna.
Anna gave him the name “Boetie,” which means “little brother.”
Do you have any children, Mr. Whitfield?
Yes, a son. He just turned 9.
You must miss him.
Yes, I do, very much.
ANNA: My mother never told me about that, you know?
Going to Paris, meeting Langston Hughes.
[CHUCKLES]
It's so strange to think your mother has a whole history
you know nothing about.
[CHUCKLING]
And how much do we know about each other's history, Anna?
Mmm.
All we need.
Mmm.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
MAN: King Tebu begot Bemboi.
And Bemboi begot Sadumo.
And Sadumo begot Mgutu.
And Mgutu begot Jongeleswei.
Jongeleswei begot Sabata.
[WHISPERING] He's naming his ancestors.
It's his way of placing himself
in the flow of time.
MBASI: And Bwilakhiya begot me.
I am Anderson Delakeyabo Mbasi.
[CROWD ULULATES]
On that day, my life was affected.
It was late at night when the police came.
“Who's knocking so terribly?” I asked.
“The police,” they said. “Open up.”
They were looking for my son.
They said my son is a terrorist,
yet he was not.
That white policeman,
the one with the bald head,
hit me on my chest. Ba!
[CROWD MURMURS]
Then they broke everything in my house.
I said to them,
“Not even a jackal does this to the sheep.”
[CROWD GRUMBLES]
I had five trees planted from the seeds,
and they bore me good fruits.
Then they went outside and broke all my small trees.
Now I want to ask this policeman,
why did you break my trees?
Tell me.
Tell me why so that I can forgive you.
[CROWD MURMURING]
[BICYCLE BELL RINGING]
Oh, there. There he is. There.
- Well done. - Anna.
You were great in there, sir. You really showed those bastards.
I showed them what is ubuntu.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
We are all part of each other.
When that policeman hurts me,
he hurts you.
He hurts everybody in this world,
but also himself.
Nelson Mandela taught us this lesson, Mr. Whitfield.
You are American.
Write about this truth
you've learned here in South Africa.
Please take this stick of mine.
It is a very important stick.
It tells us we are not alone in this world.
Ubuntu.
Don't you feel anything for the people you've injured, Colonel?
No compassion? No shame?
You talk of compassion.
I see nothing but hatred in your eyes.
So, what do you say when you come home?
What do you say to your wife when you kiss her hello
or pick your kid up and put him on your lap and tell him a bedtime story, huh?
What do you say? “I had a nice day”?
You know what you say?
You know what you tell yourself after cutting a man's throat?
You tell yourself you're saving your country.
You're saving your country from a bunch of savages
who would fuck your women, kill your children, destroy the country
your forebears created with their blood.
You tell yourself, “The blacks got out of this country.
They'll drive it into the ground like they did all over the rest of Africa.”
You tell yourself, “The blacks need us whites to control them
because they're not fucking human beings.”
This is bullshit. I've heard it all before.
There's nothing new here.
You wasted my time.
Good night, Colonel, and fuck you very much.
You want to know what killing was like?
You want to know?
Keeping someone on the edge of life because you need information?
I'll tell you, it was like having sex.
It was like fucking a woman for the first time.
I've never felt excitement like that.
Sometimes, I couldn't wait to go out at night and choose myself a Kaffir.
You motherfucker.
You want to kill me now, don't you? Hmm?
We're all the same.
You're just like me.
I would love to Kill you.
Do you know what's saving you?
An old black man with a stick...
and a white woman
who took your shame upon herself.
Wait.
Don't go.
I can prove they knew what we were doing...
the generals.
There was a farm...
a training facility.
Training farm for the askares?
Officially for training askares.
And unofficially?
Just for recreation.
Parties, beautifully stocked bar.
Generals used to come from Pretoria every weekend.
They brought their girlfriends to watch the show.
Well, where is the farm, Colonel?
You going to torture me to make me talk?
Where's the farm?
Boetold farm, near Krugersburg.
Go at night.
Your skin will protect you.
It can't be here. I know all the farms around here.
He's making a fool of you.
No, it's here.
[SIGHS]
Stay here.
|'m coming with you.
Come on.
- [GRUNTING, CLANKING] - Holy shit.
Shoo! Go.
Come on.
[PIG SQUEALING IN DISTANCE]
[SOBBING]
[MOANS]
Hush. Shh.
- Oh, my God. - Oh.
DE JAGER: Mr. Tabata knew he was going to die.
He asked to be buried with the flag of the African National Congress.
He was a brave fighter.
I said yes.
[CAMERA CLICKING]
LANGSTON: The farm was owned, operated and funded
by the apartheid government and implicates at the highest level,
the former government in murder and assassination.
Colonel Henry De Jager succeeded in exposing his superiors,
but at the cost of implicating himself.
He had to face trial. But by making a full disclosure
and showing he had followed orders,
he was confident of getting amnesty.
We are satisfied
that Colonel De Jager acted on the advice,
orders or command
of one or more senior members
of the security branch of the government.
His application for amnesty succeeds...
[CROWD PROTESTS]
On the grounds of full disclosure and a political motive...
but fails on the grounds of proportionality.
The means employed by Colonel De Jager
to carry out the orders of his superiors
were out of all proportion with the objective sought.
Amnesty is hereby refused.
[CROWD CHEERS]
Colonel De Jager will stand trial on 63 counts of murder.
I killed for my country. I was ready to die for it.
I did what I believed was right!
[CROWD CHANTING]
[CROWD SINGING “SENZENINA”]
How could you possibly think it was right to do what you did?
- Aren't you Anna Malan? - Yes.
- Malan from the farm Varoost? - Yes.
You want to know how we thought what we were doing was right?
Ask your brother.
Which brother?
Which brother? Which brother? LANGSTON: Anna, no! No!
- Which brother? - Let him go, let him go.
Why, Boetie?
I can understand a bullet.
I truly can. I know a bullet.
We grew up with guns. You taught me how to shoot.
I know a bullet.
But the applies, the electric cord,
the metal pipe with a condom over it...
I cannot understand.
I have no place for them in my head.
[SOBBING] Help me to know.
Help me, Boetie.
My gentle Boetie.
Please.
I did it for us, Anna.
So our people could sleep safe.
I got blood on my hands so we could all sleep safe.
You knew this, Anna.
We all knew this.
- Boetie... - Go, Anna.
Go!
[GUNSHOT]
[GASPS]
ANNA: Ma?
Ma, we're leaving.
All those years ago...
that time I was in Paris...
- I met someone. - Ma, I...
He was a poet from Chile.
Imagine that... the other side of the world.
We couldn't have been more different...
or more the same.
- Ma, don't. - I didn't tell your father, Anna.
I didn't stop loving him,
not for a moment.
I didn't tell him, but the lie took something away.
Even if the truth isn't known, Anna,
the effect is there.
No more lies, Anna.
No more lies.
EDWARD: You expect me to forgive you, huh?
You want amnesty from me?
Well, two can play that game, huh?
Let's have a fucking hearing.
You can confess, and then he can tell me
whether you're telling the truth or not.
How many times, Anna?
Where? From when to when?
I love you.
|'m so sorry.
I'm so very, very sorry.
- Hi, Dumi. - Hey, Felicia.
Where's Anna?
I don't know. Do you want something to drink?
Yeah, thanks.
Great. Cheers.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
At the final hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
held in Capetown today,
a senior police spokesperson told reporters...
Those who committed abuses had their judgments clouded
by overzealousness or negligence.
No policeman has ever been asked to commit atrocities...
[CLAMORING]
[SINGING AND CHANTING]
She's gone, bro.
It's over.
- But hey, you still got me, okay? - Yeah.
Okay.
Take care of yourself.
Be good.
[WHISTLING]
Hey, Anna.
Oh, you missed the party.
Langston's coming home with me
for the farewell dinner. Come with us. My wife is cooking.
I can't, Dumi.
This for me?
Hey, man.
Thanks, Dumi.
Thanks for making me laugh when there was nothing to laugh about.
Hey, thanks, Anna Malan.
Oh...
Why don't I fill up this for the road.
I came to say good-bye.
I'm sorry about your brother.
Langston.
Ja, man.
Anna.
Bye-bye.
[CLICKS TONGUE]
I told Edward.
Cheers, mate.
Anna.
You take care.
Thank Christ we're out of here.
My skin will never forget you.
Anna.
Langston, let's go.
That's my house.
What the hell's that guy doing?
I don't know.
LANGSTON: Oh, Jesus, it's a car jacking.
Take the car. I don't give a shit. Just take it.
Dumisani.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
No, leave him.
He's American.
Ah. American.
We're Dumi's friends from before.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
What?
Langston, it's okay, man.
Dumi doesn't want to talk today,
but Dumi liked very much to talk before.
- No. - Yes.
[SPEAKING IN AFRIKAANS]
They paid you.
How much did you get for old Hubert Sobandla?
Ten rands? Fifteen, 207?
They were going to kill me, my wife and the kids.
You pointed out old Hubert Sobandla on the highway.
How many others, Dumisani? How many more?
Langston, believe me, man, they forced me.
[SPEAKS IN AFRIKAANS]
Tell him what it means.
It means he's going to meet his ancestors today.
Oh, Dumi!
[GROANS]
Don't cry for him.
He's an mbembe from before.
Langston.
Dumi!
Oh, God.
Oh, come on. Come on, come on, come on.
Come on. Don't die. Come on. Come on.
[GASPS]
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
- Hold on. - Langston.
- Forgive me. - No.
Somebody help me!
LANGSTON: Out of love No regrets
Though the return Be never
ANNA: Because of you This country no longer lies
Between us but within
It breathes becalmed
After being wounded In its wondrous throat
In the cradle of my skull It sings, it ignites
My tongue
By a thousand stories I was scorched
A new skin
I am changed forever, I want to say:
Forgive me