While her husband Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Winnie Mandela became one of the leaders of the struggle against apartheid. This television movie shows the restrictions placed upon her life by the authorities and the abuse she had to deal with from the South African state, namely the police who would regularly arrest her, interrogate her, abuse her and thrash her home
Winnie Mandela may had been shy when she first met Nelson, but over the years she toughened up. Eventually she became a celebrity in her own right but rumours emerged that she had become a monster with her personal bodyguards routinely imprisoning and torturing alleged collaborators and police informers. One of them being murdered.
Just a few years after Nelson's release from Robben Island, the couple had separated. Winnie Mandela had to watch from the sidelines as he became President of South Africa.
The film has a bravura performance from both Sophie Okonedo and David Harewood. However the narrative did not entirely work for me with the interrogation scenes proving distracting. The film does not show Winnie being either a saint or sinner but more a strong willed, complex survivor.
