"Invictus"

I am no fan of sports, much less of rugby (even though it is a “hooligan’s sport played by gentlemen”). But “Invectus” was more than just about men running on a big field, kicking and passing an olive-shaped ball sideways and backwards. It was about a sport that managed to bring a new nation together, and about the man who lived forgiveness and aspired for unity.

Set in a South Africa shortly after its transition to democracy with the election of Nelson Mandela, the movie touches the heart of a newborn nation, and deals with the story of a president’s attempt to unite a people divided for far too long by race and colour.

Rugby seemed at first the most unlikely means to build bridges and trust between South Africans. The green and gold colours and emblems of the “(Spring)Bokke” (“Antelope”) was for a long while a very poignant symbol of Apartheid. Before, while the whites cheered what was supposed to be the ‘national’ team of South Africa, the majority black population would rally for whichever opposing country. How do you build a “rainbow nation” that is “hungry for greatness”? How do you gently leave behind the past and allay suspicions of revenge and repeats of the worst excesses of what is happening in Zimbabwe? How do you address the cruel wrongs of a segregationist pariah regime and soothe the collective trauma and suffering of the vast majority?

Through reconciliation and forgiveness. Through dialogue and sharing stories. Through a president whose seemingly endless dark nights and days on Robbein Island was lit by the beauty and healing of poetry and humanity. Through victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup And through team captain Francois Pienaard who shared the same dream of togetherness as Mandela, and who sang the same song of hope and freedom which to his black compatriots sang.

Morgan Freeman’s true-to-life performance captures the essence Mandela, from his genuine concern for all those around him, down to the dimpled smile and infectious swaying dance and hand movements of South Africa’s former dissident turned president. South Africa may still have its fair share of economic and social woes, and may still be plagued by its recent past, and by the great divides of race and class. But if the movie has a message, it is that in those moments of collective euphoria and celebration, those memories of pain and suffering grow ever paler.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.