Invictus

A few things about the movie

- Feature film, USA, 2010
- Duration : 2 hours and 14 minutes
- Relevant public : more than 12 years old
- Production: Clint Eastwood, Genevieve Hofmeyr, Robert Lorenz, Lori McCreary, Mace
Neufeld, Mark L. Rosen, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum,Morgan Freeman,Tim Moore

Synopsis
Invictus begins with the release of Nelson Mandela (who is Morgan Freeman) from
prison in 1990. After being held for nearly 26 years on Robben Island because of planning
acts of sabotage against the South African state, Mandela's release marks what soon
becomes the end of apartheid in South Africa. A new election is held and Mandela wins it.
So, he gives a speech commiting to unite the people of South Africa. The current divide has
largely divided the Afrikaners (white South Africans that came from Europe during the 17th
century) and the various black tribes in which the largest of which are Zulu, Xhosa, and
Bapedi. The victory of Mandela gives hope to the black population of South Africa, while the
white Afrikaners and Zulu begin to feel that they're losing the country. Nelson Mandela
decided to gather his people around a sport, rugby. The bet is bold. South African blacks
do not identify at all with this team and its jersey, symbols of apartheid. Thus, during
matches, Whites support the South African team and Blacks the English team. All members
of the government strongly advise Mandela against embarking on this project, which is
considered unnecessary. But the president contacted Springboks captain François Pienaar
and asked him to coach his team for the Rugby World Cup to be held in Cape Town the
following year.

The history of South Africa

The word apartheid comes from the French "à part" and means "separation" in
Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners. It is a development policy that is separate from the
population, according to ethnic and linguistic criteria, in selected geographical areas. This
policy was made official in 1948 by the National Party. The population is organized into four
main parts: Whites, Indians, Métis and Blacks. Cities are reserved for whites, other
communities are confined in ghettos.

Apartheid is divided into two branches: "small apartheid", which limits white people's
contact with non-whites in public transport and places open to the public, and "large
apartheid", which defines space into separate and ethnically determined geographical areas.

The aim of "large apartheid" is to force blacks, according to their tribal origin and
language, to gather in Bantustans destined to become "independent countries". The result is
a large, rich and prosperous country populated by South African whites who welcome a
large number of very poor black immigrant workers which can produce the wealth whereas
other could benefit of it. In 1944, he created the Youth League of the African National
Congress (ANC), an organization founded in 1912 to oppose apartheid. Mandela heads
military arm of the organization. He was arrested by the police in 1962 and sentenced to life
imprisonment in 1964. Apartheid was officially abolished in 1991. Three years after
Mandela's release, the country is preparing for the first multiracial elections, held in 1994.

The ANC won and Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the history of
South Africa. South Africa has triumphed over apartheid. It is now fighting to reduce
inequality, poverty, unemployment and crime. In 1995, Mandela created the LANGTAG
commission (''Language Plan Task Group'') which proposed a language project aimed at
protecting eleven official languages as well, and not just two (English and Afrikaans).

The establishment of South Africa's 1996 Constitution, which is based on the political
ideology of pluralism, aims to promote democratic values, equity and non-discrimination,
human rights, national unity and the development of all communities in the country.

Finally, article 6 of the Constitution recognized eleven official languages: Sedik,

Sesotho, Sesotho, Tswana, Swati, Venda, Tsonga, Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa and
Zulu. The State, the provinces and local authorities were now required to promote the use of
the eleven official languages, by drafting all administrative acts in at least three of the
languages mentioned.

In this movie, we can see the involvement of Nelson Mandela in the 1995 Rugby
World Cup. It allows us to learn both the politician and the man. Indeed, by choosing to bet
everything on the World Cup to bring his people together, against the advice of his close
advisers, Mandela immediately affirmed his conception of politics. As he says in the movie:
"It's not a political calculation, but a human calculation". But Invictus is not only a film about
sport or about the first black president in South Africa. It also discusses about the racial
prejudices that were still prevalent when he came to power. For example, the first scene of
the film illustrates this: on the one hand, we can see the Springboks' white team trains on a
beautiful field and on the other hand, black children play on a piece of land. Separated by
barriers, the two worlds seem irreconcilable.This split is so deep that when François Pienaar
asks his team to learn the South African anthem, no one follows him. At the end, the
Springboks won the game, supported by the whole country. Finally, the rugby team sings the
South African anthem in the final.

The movie talks about the values of sport, team spirit, the links between sport and
politics, violence and sport. In terms of history, several subjects are addressed like the
apartheid regime in South Africa, racial prejudice during apartheid, the arrival of Nelson
Mandela as President, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the links between sport and politics, the
life and politics of Nelson Mandela.

The movie was called Invictus because it's a poem by William Ernest Henley, it’s the
favourite Nelson Mandela’s poem written in 1875 by Henley on his hospital bed following an
amputation of the foot. This poem was the demonstration of his resistance to pain following
his amputation. In 1994, the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of Apartheid, but
South Africa remains a nation deeply divided in racial and economic terms. To unify the
country and give every citizen a reason for pride, Mandela put his faith in sport and made
common cause with the captain of the modest South African rugby team. Their challenge: to
win the 1995 World Championship.... South Africa had previously been excluded from any
sporting competition due to Apartheid. In 2010, the movie is published because it’s the
anniversary date of Mandela's release from prison.

The film traces the hope of national unity on a rugby land.... Clint Eastwood focused
his work on this desire to bring a people and a national team to the highest peaks. South
Africa is a multi-ethnic nation (a rainbow nation as Nelson Mandela said) with a significant
number of languages (the new national anthem is an example). The will to unite a people in
sporting values is strong since sport is considered here above all as a universal language.
This World Cup made it possible to create links in the country in crisis but also to send a
strong message to the rest of the world.

Extract
The extract is at the end of the film. We can see the Springbok team visiting the
prison in which Nelson Mandela was held for 27 years. At the precise moment of the
discovery of his cell, the team captain intends to resound in him the poem Invictus which
allowed Mandela to keep hope... This leads to a flashback with strong images of Mandela's
prison conditions, a very important scene since the poem is the common thread of the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuEYGct99n0

The excerpt begins with a close-up shot of François Pienaar. The prison bars allow
Matt Damon to be placed in the situation of the prisoner: he measures the dimension of the
space that was granted to Nelson Mandela during his period of confinement. We can then
see the prisoner's view from his cell. We have a general plan of the outside space of the
prison. In addition to this succession of shots, there is a voiceover reading the poem
Invictus. Convicts appear in the prison yard, they correspond to ghosts, thus organizing the
flash back to the time when Mandela was imprisoned. Similarly, a tracking system makes it
possible to follow the actor's turnaround and find Mandela when he was in these places. The
shadows of prisoners then disappear.The end of the excerpt is divided into two planes: one
of this which represents a deserted landscape where the dust, symbol of a memory that
comes disappears and the other one the image of Matt Damon, leaving to join his team.
From the beginning, we can hear several sound shots: real sound effects such as
footsteps, the door closing, but also the characters' discussions. We can hear in a one hand
Nelson Mandela's voice reciting the poem Invictus and in another hand the sound effects of
the work of prisoners breaking stones. The wind blows at the end of the extract.