Gravel Road Distribution Group & Firegrass Films present, Lemogang Tsipa (Impi), Thabiso Masote (Young Impi), Thabo Andrew Rametsi, (Nkosana) Bahlen Mashnini (Young Nkosana), Lisa Van Deventer (Elizabeth), Jeanique Fourie (Young Elizabeth), Edward Horn (Jakob) Nqobile Sipambla (Nomusa), Ncibijana Madlala (Bangizwe), Zondwa Njokweni (Alina). Director of Photography, Justus De Jager; Screenplay/Director, Nerina De Jager; Producers, Riaan Van Der Wart, Greig Buckle, Jerrod De Jong; Executive Producers, Riaan Van Der Wart. © 2022.
Amandla is about an odyssey of two brothers, Impi (Lemogang Tsipa) and Nkosana (Thabo Andrew Rametsi). They had a rude awakening when three Whites males murdered their parents in the backwoods of a South African farm, ending them in the township of Soweto. A romantic relationship starts between Impi (Black) and Young Elizabeth (Jeanique Fourie). Impi’s father, Bangizwe (Ncibijana Madlala), had seen it coming and warned his son, “My son, you cannot like Elizabeth. I beg of you, son….This friendship with Elizabeth is going to cause so much trouble for all of us.”
American July 4th. The White (Dutch) defeated the Zulu’s this wonderful day about two hundred years ago. On Dingaan’s day, as they call it, coincides with Impi’s birthday, Jakob (Edward Horn), the farmer for who Impi’s parents worked, invites White friends to his farm. While there, the three White boys who had pestered Nkosana and Impi and pelted them with cow dung run into Nkosana alone in the field. Impi’s father’s advice about Elizabeth, unheeded, wandered from the gathering and settled under a giant tree on the farm. Elizabeth has Impi’s birthday gift. They kiss. Nkosana tells on his brother when scolded by the three whites.
As they sleep in their beds, the family awakes to the three Whites demanding to see Impi. Nomusa (Nqobile Sipambla) stealthily helps her boys through the window and escape into the woods. The odyssey starts. The three White boys bury their parents’ dead bodies in the house, set the house ablaze, walk away, and leave the bodies in the inferno. The parents didn’t survive the anger of the Whites after learning their son kissed a White girl. Hello, is this not a scene from American South, the lynchings?
Nkosana and Impi’s odyssey begins. “Come Nkosana, Let’s go to Isando. Do you remember Mama told us there are black people there? Come.” The brothers stay in Isando until they are grown, and Nkosana goes to Johannesburg to join the police force. Nkosana isn’t happy when Impi tells him he will be going to Soweto to join Alina (Zondwa Njokweni), his pregnant girlfriend. “Soweto isn’t Isando,” Nkosana comments. Impi runs into the worst Zulu criminal Shaka (Israel Makoe). Shaka’s information network of all Zulus coming to Johannesburg, particularly Soweto, is superb. He has all info on Impi and his brother and Impi’s pregnant girl.
Nkosana graduates from the police academy and designates to Soweto. At the same time, Impi joins Shaka’s criminal team in Soweto, pulling the first heist together. Upon executing this first heist, Impi commits the most regrettable crime he won’t live to tell. Shaka and his gang force Impi to rape Elizabeth and bludgeon her head. Impi pulls a knife at his brother. when he confronts him about the crime. What a coincidence? When Nkosana finds out his brother had done havoc to Elizabeth and confronts him about it, that brings us to the moment of truth in the story.
Nkosana, “Oh, you carry a knife now. Who are you?”
“Impi Khumalo.”
“You are a murderer….Did they make you do it?”
“They did, my brother.”
“I didn’t ask you to turn out like this.”
“You didn’t? You have forgotten that I raised you. But you refused the food I bought for you? Did you ever have to miss school? Did you ever join me to steal milk? Open your eyes. Since when does someone age eleven work at the mines? (beat) I also want to start a new life. Mine’s in danger, brother. I didn’t kill anyone….They had a gun against my head, brother. You know I never wanted to hurt Elizabeth, but I hurt her….(kneels in front of Nkosana). You know what, make me pay for Ma. (grabs Nkosana’s pistol and points the nozzle at his forehead). Make me pay for Elizabeth. Nkosana, kill me.”
Amandla has a backdrop and is reminiscent of Cry the Beloved Country. First off, the lead characters’ family name in Amandla is Khumalu, as in Cry the Beloved Country. Reverend Steven Kumalo visits his ailing sister, Gertrude, and finds his son Absalon Kumalo in Johannesburg. They all must be hailing from the Kwazulu land in Natal.
In Cry…Reverend Kumalo discovers that his sister is a prostitute. His son, Absalon, is accused of murdering Arthur Javis, a prominent White Christian crusader for racial justice. Even as Reverend Kumalo hires a lawyer to prove his son’s innocence, he keeps asking himself what his son has become. Reverend Kumalo has no clue his sister Gertrude and son Abasalon turn out to be social rejects. Back in his home, Reverend Kumalo has always admired the excellent work of Javis and can’t fathom why anyone could murder him. Gertrude’s character in Cry the Beloved… and Elizabeth’s mother in Amandla are the same, Gertrude.
What is Rverend Kumalo in Cry… is Nkosana in Amandla. Nkosana feels tortured hard when he finds what his brother has become. He understands his predicament and wants to get him out of Johannesburg back to KwaZulu-Natal. Nkosana can’t imagine how the fate of Elizabeth, who had given Impi money on his birthday and had earned his first kiss, could be her murderer. Reverend Stephen Kumalo couldn’t get Absalon out. He is going to the gallows for the murder of Javis. Nkosana’s plan to get his brother Impi out of Soweto messes up when they run into Shaka, and all three of them perish in a shootout.
Thabo Andrew Remitse’s last film I reviewed was Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Malanghu (2017). A riveting story of a young revolutionary against the Apartheid regime of South Africa. Here, in defense of his brother, Police officer Nkosana takes arms against Shaka. He gets execution in Kalushi. Yet he marches to the gallows bravely, saying, “If somebody told me I have an hour to live, I would spend it choking a Whiteman. My blood would nourish the tree that would bear the fruit of freedom. Aluta continua!”
Rumors of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison didn’t sit well with the South African Whites. We see Jakob shoos Nkosana and Impi out of sight before his visitors arrive. The three White boys echo their anger as they repeat insultingly, “Amandla! (power). The slogan is Zulu’s revolutionary cry. “Amandla!” means power, and the crowd answers, “Ngawethu!” Meaning “It is ours!” By the time Nkosana and Impi had grown, Mandela had been released and became ANC’s first black president. But like Impi’s father told him, “Impi, things haven’t changed.”