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Cape Town - SAFTA winner Tumisho Masha is the first South African to play Mandela as a lead role in a major film.
A unique hybrid of spy thriller and documentary, Mandela’s Gun tells the story of the Makarov pistol Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie gave Nelson Mandela as the ANC shifted strategy towards armed resistance.
Masha plays the young Mandela history has forgotten: the revolutionary who co-founded uMkhonto we Sizwe in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre.
Tasked with building an army before he had even fired a gun at an enemy, Mandela left South Africa for military training in Algeria and Ethiopia. Travelling on false passports, he was known as the Black Pimpernel as he evaded capture and assassination attempts during his African odyssey, which also took him to Botswana and Tanzania.
Watch the trailer here:
The film will have its world premiere as the opening night film at the inaugural Joburg Film Festival on 28 October 2016.
Find out more about the festival here.
