This picture is a great instance of the condition of South Africa for innocent persons before Nelson Mandela came around.

“Catch a Fire” follows Patrick Chamusso, played by Derek Luke (Glory Road), a South African during the Apartheid era who’s innocent family is tortured for his suspicion of being a terrorist.

After being cleared and released, Chamusso seeks out the region’s freedom fighters to help liberate his country from the oppressive white rule of the time and its anti-terrorism leader police colonel Nic Vos, played by Tim Robbins (Mystic River).

This film carries a wonderful message of forgiveness, which is echoed by the actual Patrick Chamusso in the film’s final sequence.

There are several great performances from Luke, Bonnie Mbuli as Patrick’s wife and Robbins. This was another out-of-the-park hitter for acting in 2006.

I really enjoyed how three dimensional the picture made the character of Vos, especially as a villain. So many movies find a way to make its nemesis the weakest link among main characters, simply by a lack of valid motivation. “Because he’s mean” is not a strong inner motivation. “Because he’s a racist” isn’t enough. “Because he feels he is privileged and becomes defensive any time he feels terrorism threatens the safety of his own family” is a well rounded character motivation with room for many responses to different situations. The film showed Vos as human with moments of irrational fear, rather than JUST a racist.

On a side note: writer Shawn Slovo is the daughter of anti apartheid activists Joe Slovo and Ruth First, whose experiences as a child was the basis for the 1988 film “A World Apart” with Barbara Hershey, which Shawn Slovo also wrote.

Overall, this may be the best movie set in Apartheid South Africa since 1987’s “Cry Freedom.” It’s an important movie to see.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?