The National Film and Video Foundation and National Lotteries Commission present Thabo Ramaetsi (Solomon), Shika Budhoo (Priscilla Jana), Murray Todd (Mr. Mailer), Marcel Van Heerden (Judge Theron), Wandile Molabatsi (Phineus Cousin), Pearl Thusi (Brenda Riviera), Kaseran Pillay (Comrade Dawood), Thabo Malema (Mondy), Welile Nzuza (Tommy London), Jafta Mamabolo (Lucky), Director/Producer, Mandlakayise Walter Dube, Jr; Producer, Walter Stephen Ayres; Director of Photography Tommy (Maddox) Upshaw; Screenplay by Leon Otto. ©2016.
“All we want is freedom…that’s all we want. Freedom. Freedom for children to learn…Freedom for men to work…for mothers to love, for a nation to grow. That’s all we want. Equality for everyone, you see…I am just one of many, a foot soldier…There will be many, many more to follow. So, there is no court of law, no police force, no army that will stop the tide of revolution from turning. There is no punishment that you can layout in this court; no law your government can pass will kill the people’s will. Because we will fight. We will continue to fight until all our people are free. And maybe we can even free you from yourselves. So, you can hate us. Degrade us, torture us and kill us, but we will fight. And one day, we will be free. One-day-we will-be free.”
The movie opens in medias res, in the courtroom, when the Prosecutor announces, “Your Lordship, the State hereby charges the accused, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a 21-year-old of South African birth. Residing at 2445 Block C2 Mamelodi, Pretoria. With two counts of murder. Two counts of attempted murder and engaging in public violence and violence against property. And lastly, but most importantly, the act of acting together in a common purpose.
During his pretrial interrogation, Solomon was asked:
“If you weren’t at the June 16th protest, why did you go into exile?” Asked the Prosecutor.
“I got tired. Angry. My family was forcefully removed from our ancestral land. It killed my father, I had to help my mother. And my manhood had been violated. I couldn’t take it anymore. What would you do? Besides, we know what you are capable of killing marching students. Children marching for Freedom.” Answered Solomon.
The Judge asks Solomon, “How did you leave the country?”
“We use the green border into Mozambique.”
Ones in Mozambique, they get captured by the Revolutionary forces in Mozambique and hand them over to the United Nations Refugee camp. For six weeks, they stayed and later enrolled them in the engineering camp outside Luanda. He gets recruited and initiated in the Umkhonto we Sizwe wing of the African National Congress and joined by three of his friends Tommy London, Lucky, and Mondy. In six months, he learned to read books about Che Gueverah’s guerrilla revolutionary warfare tactics. He reads the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He receives training in sabotage. Learned how to make home-made explosives from commercial materials. Learned military combat works, target all government facilities, but avoid civilian casualties—essential sabotage services like the post office: police stations, and all electricity powers. And most important of all, the female captain has this last conversation with Solomon.
Captain, “Have you ever killed someone?”
Solomon shakes his head in denial, “No.”
“Well, don’t be in too much of a rush to do it. You don’t want to see life fade from someone’s eyes. You watch their soul go away…and you know you took it. You don’t want that on your conscience.”
Solomon enters back into Johannesburg, leaving behind one of his comrades, Tommy London (Welile Nzuza), who gets disabled in the eye by a booby-trap. Mondy (Thabo Malema) and Lucky (Jafta Mamabolo) follow through. From the training camp to crossing the border back into South Africa, Mondy has been the trouble-maker among the group. He insists they should go to Soweto first, instead of Tembisi, the designated target station.Solomon Kalushi and his comrades arrive in Tembisi anyhow and conduct reconnaissance and found nothing doing. Hence, they decide to move to Soweto. It all got to a bad start. An unintended mishap leads to a shoot out by Lucky and Mondy in the public parking. Mondy’s disobedient to command screwed up everything for them.
He kills two White men, and the other two turned on him when his gun gets stuck. Solomon comes upon the scene to help Mondy, while the two Whites are beating and bloodying him. Solomon has his gun pointed at them but could not shoot, because he believes, killing won’t solve anything, and don’t want to have it on his conscience. He remembers the radio voice of the General warning them, “You are not killers. You are revolutionaries.” He had imbibed in him Che Guevera’s revolutionary dictum: “revolution is the greatest act of love. Love one’s people, love one’s country.”
The South African police arrest Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. At the same time, his gun is trained on the two White men who bludgeon Mondy. The government has collected thorough interrogations, confessions, and evidence against Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. Mr. Mailer and Ms. Precilla, together, defendants, with their client Solomon had a first good day in court. All witnesses cleared Solomon from the scene of the killing of the two White men.
There is one witness, however, the cousin of Solomon, Phineus ( Wandile Molabatsi), with whom he had visited upon his return to South Africa. Phineus and his friends had been drinking. It is four days to the June16 Soweto Riot celebration. Solomon said, “You’re sitting around drinking, is that manhood? Gents, sitting here complaining about how you’re oppressed in your own land? It’s time to fight back. Phineus, in his last statement to the court, says, “ Solomon says we should join the ANC so that we could kill the Boers. When Solomon’s defense rests its case, the Judge passes his ruling: “You have been found guilty of all charges. Is there anything you want to tell the court before the pronouncement of your sentence?”
There is a moment Solomon spends with his family before his sentencing. Brenda, his girlfriend, starts to cry, “I’m scared.” “Shh, don’t be. When you think of me, look up at heaven …I will be with the stars.” His brother Lucas Mahlangu (Fumani Shilubana) suggests an escape from prison. Solomon, “ Brother Lucas, I have caused enough trouble for our family. It ends here. I have accepted it. You should, the same. I love you all. It’s time, I have to go.”
Judge Theron (Marcel Van Heerden) passes the death penalty on Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. He asks if he has anything to say before facing his death:
“All we want is freedom…but we will fight. And one day we will be free.” He turned to the crowd behind him, with teary eyes, hands fisted in the air, shouts, “Power! Power!” His female defendant, Ms. Precilla, shouts back, “Is Ours!”
Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu…you are hereby sentenced to death. You’ll be taken to Pretoria central Prison on a date to be set, and you will be hanged by your neck until you die.
As Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu walks to the gallow, this is what he said:
And finally, Miles Davis once said, If somebody told me I have an hour to live, I would spend it choking a White man…But in my final hour I say, my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruit of Freedom. Tell my people I love them, and they must continue the fight. The struggle continues.
Thabo Rametsi is the first South African actor to play a South African hero since the apartheid era. Since he plays the part so well, he gives authenticity to his character and to the story as well. He is resolute and determined. The storyline creates the real-life Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, who espouses Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent. He has lots of love in him for the fellow man. Thabo Rametsi can even play the younger age, of Nelson Mandela. Don’t they look alike? Tell me.