Carel Trichardt Movies
An apolitical South African oil-refinery worker and soccer coach is forced into terrorism as a means of fighting back against the brutality of the apartheid regime in director Phillip Noyce's dramatic look at the life of one-time political prisoner and freedom fighter Patrick Chamusso. In the 1980s, Patrick (Derek Luke) and his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna) lived a peaceful life until one fateful day, when on an overnight trip with his team, Patrick is singled out as the prime suspect in a bombing at the refinery. Placed in solitary confinement, with his wife and family brutalized by government agent Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), the young family man is eventually cleared of charges, but his life is in shambles. Devastated and distraught, Patrick soon begins working as a rebel fighter and political operative for Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. As the oppressed country's powerful apartheid regime continues to torture and torment its citizens, the now-radicalized Patrick must disappear from his family without a trace and go undercover if he is to aid in toppling the system that destroyed his family, and forever changed his outlook on the world. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Derek Luke, (more)
- 1998
Filmed in South Africa, this lengthy biographical drama details events in the life of 19th-century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes (Martin Shaw) through an extensive series of overlapping flashbacks. The BBC original ran for eight hours, but for telecasting in the United States, the BBC edited the film down to six hours. The U.S. premiere was on PBS' Masterpiece Theater on January 4-6, 1998. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Baker, Martin Shaw, (more)
- 1993
- NR
Friendship, politics, violence, and personal responsibility meet head on in this drama. In the late 1980s, three young women who are completing their college education share a house together in Johannesburg, South Africa. Aninka (Michele Burgers) is the daughter of wealthy Afrikaners; she is studying archeology and has personally rejected her family's pro-apartheid politics. Thoko (Dambisa Kente) is Black and receiving a degree in education; her family has little money, and her mother works as a cleaning woman to help pay her daughter's tuition. Sophie (Kerry Fox), whose British parents are well-to-do, is studying library science, and unknown to the others, she has taken a very strong position against South Africa's policy of minority rule. Sophie has joined a terrorist group determined to fight apartheid by any means necessary; under orders from the group, she places a bomb at a busy airport in Johannesburg, killing many innocent bystanders in the process. Sophie's confusion and guilt over the consequences of her actions drive a wedge between herself and her husband, a fellow activist, and it complicates her friendship with Aninka and Thoko. Writer-director Elaine Proctor won the Golden Camera award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival for her work on Friends. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kerry Fox, Dambisa Kente, (more)
- 1989
- R
The daughter (Abigail Wolcott) of the owner of a ghost-town tourist attraction was killed by strangers, and the owner bears a serious grudge to those who are his bread and butter. So much so, that when he runs across a crystal that revivifies corpses and turns them into monsters or worse, he uses it on his newly dead daughter. When she is revived, she looks normal, and is able to lure unsuspecting victims to the man's town where he can then chop them up. In this horror thriller, a group of college students on a lark come to the town with predictable results. Fortunately for the hero (Ron Palillo), the dead girl still has some human feelings left. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Palillo, Abigail Wolcott, (more)
