Moving film about South Africa at the Living Room Theater, open 12/18

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Endgame
Director: Pete Travis
With: William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong, Clarke Peters

This is Nelson Mandela’s year in the movies.  Besides Invictus, he is depicted in this film as well.  It is the story of how back-room negotiations resulted in Mandela’s (Peters) release from prison, and the beginning of the process that led to the first free election in South Africa.
Michael Young (Miller) works for a gold mining company, and he decides that it is in his company’s best interest to end apartheid.  He enlists a liberal Afrikaaner professor Esterhuyse (Hurt) to engage in secret talks with the government and the African National Congress, represented by Thabo Mbeki (Ejiofor).  He is resisted by Esterhuyse’s reluctance, the professor’s family is threatened, the Botha government’s racism, and the mistrust of the majority black population and its representatives.
Miller, who has maybe 20 lines of dialogue, emanates sheer physical presence in every scene he is in.  Remarkable work.  Everyone else is terrific, especially Strong as Dr. Niel Barnard, the white government’s security chief, and thug master.  (By the way, Niel Barnard is no relation to Dr. Cristiaan Barnard, a famous anti-apartheid liberal beyond his medical achievements.)
This is a tense, well-acted and hopeful film.  It is well worth seeing.
A-