TV film tells story of hidden negotiations that changed South Africa
It was a moment of political history too sensitive to be revealed for more than a decade. In the luxurious surroundings of an English country house, secret round-table discussions took place in the late 1980s that were to bring about the dismantling of the apartheid system in South Africa.
In the seclusion of Mells Park in Somerset, and unknown to all but a few invited guests, Thabo Mbeki, then a dissident member of the African National Congress and now President of his country, met representatives of the white regime he hated.
Work has just finished on a film that will tell the story of these meetings for the first time. Endgame, a political thriller shot in England and South Africa, stars the Hollywood actor William Hurt as Willie Esterhuyse, who represented P.W. Botha's government, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the award-winning British actor, as Mbeki. The two opposing politicians, who remain friends to this day, formed a strong bond in these discussions that later enabled their country to move forward. The extraordinary friendship is at the centre of the new drama, which is produced by Channel 4 and will receive a theatrical release abroad next year...
Read entire article at Observer (UK)
In the seclusion of Mells Park in Somerset, and unknown to all but a few invited guests, Thabo Mbeki, then a dissident member of the African National Congress and now President of his country, met representatives of the white regime he hated.
Work has just finished on a film that will tell the story of these meetings for the first time. Endgame, a political thriller shot in England and South Africa, stars the Hollywood actor William Hurt as Willie Esterhuyse, who represented P.W. Botha's government, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the award-winning British actor, as Mbeki. The two opposing politicians, who remain friends to this day, formed a strong bond in these discussions that later enabled their country to move forward. The extraordinary friendship is at the centre of the new drama, which is produced by Channel 4 and will receive a theatrical release abroad next year...