Birth of a Nation Director Boorman Captures Life in Post-Apartheid South Africa by Ky N. Nguyen Director John Boormanís lengthy resume includes memorable titles such as ìPoint Blank,î ìDeliverance,î and ìHope and Glory.î With distinguished British formality, he recalled the genesis of his current film, ìIn My Country.î ìDuring the Apartheid, when there were sanctions, a lot of playwrights in Britain refused to have their plays played in South Africa. It was a pariah state. I argued that art is fundamentally subversive, and it was counterproductive not to allow these plays to be shown in South Africa. They shouldnít be denied that because they were more likely to change if exposed to those kinds of works than otherwise. ìSo it was a bit of controversy. The British Council asked, ëWould I like to go out [to South Africa]?í I met a lot of people, black and white, who were fighting against Apartheid, at great risk to themselves. When this wonderful change occurred, I was so thrilled that I said Iíd like to make a film about the change.î Boorman said the main plot element in his film is the countryís Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). ìThe idea in setting it up was trying to bring people together rather than drive them apart. Rather than vengeance and recriminations, trying to find a way of forgiving. ìThis notion of ubuntu [humanity for others] comes from African tribal life. Typically a tribe would have one or two hundred people who all know each other intimately. They didnít have a prison, so you canít lock people up. ìIf someone committed a crime, they talked to him. They tried to find ways of compensating the victim and of having the victim confront himóand hopefully finding a way of bringing them together and finding understanding,î the director explained. ìThe TRC was a tremendous piece of social engineering. It allowed people to tell their stories, to confront their perpetrators and all the silence and secrecy of that regime. It just blew the top off that. Everything came out in the open. ìIt didnít solve everything, by any means. You see that vengeance was still a factor, and not everyone could find forgiveness in their hearts. And their chief problem now is enormous poverty,î Boorman added. ìBut I found it exhilarating to be there in South Africa, the birth of a nation. Everything is politicized. Because everyone was affected, everybody has an issue. The dialectic is so universal. It made me feel that I lived in a consumer society where thereís no ideology, really. Every subject in social life is seen in the light of what the new South Africa should be or is going to be, and I found that very liberating.î ëMillionsí Not Just for Kids With the runaway success of 1996ís exhilarating ìTrainspotting,î British filmmaker Danny Boyle became the flavor of the moment. With less than stellar results on Hollywood productions, heís since returned to making more personal British films. Boyle talked about ìMillions,î his current release. ìItís about children, but itís not really for children. There are lots of films like it in Europe. Thereís a great Swedish film called ëMy Life as a Dog.í There is a Belgian film called ëMy Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink),í about this little boy who wears dresses, which is very strange. Thereís a Louis Malle film, a very serious film, called ëAu Revoir les Enfants.í They were kind of templates for it. The director also learned from Steven Spielbergís ìE.T.î ìThereís a big lesson in ëE.T.íóa kind of templateówhich is: You put the camera at [a childís] head height, so that adults, you cut their heads off. Or you look at the belts of adults, so it felt like a world down there that had its own rules. And you canít copy that directly ëcause itís so deliberately done in that film. ìInstead, we tried to use the colors of the celluloid to make them kind of pop like primary colors. Although itís a Christmas film, we tried to shoot in summertime so that the sky would always look blue, the grass would look green, and the trains would look red. Thereís bright sunlight in it all the time. Itís to kind of try and just recreate what it felt like to be a kid in Manchester.î Boyle said that as a child, ìyou view everything as an opportunity. You donít bother wearing your jacket. Thatís why your mom always shouts, ëPut your jacket on!í But youíre not interested in the rain. Itís just great.î When the lead character in ìMillions,î Alex Etel, moves into the house at the beginning of the film, ìhe just bowls around it ëcause thatís how you experience it as a kid,î Boyle said. ì[Etel] says stuff that I could never dream of Ö a way of saying those lines. I could never instruct an actor how to say it. And I realize now that when Iíve worked with method actors that thatís the quality theyíre looking for, which is that pure kind of spontaneous. What! It just pops out, and itís like what? It makes you listen. It makes you think itís real life for a moment.î Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.