Biopic about Nelson Mandela - starring Idris Elba as the man who became a legend in his own time.

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As a Xhosa, Mandela spent his childhood in the province until his law studies took him to Johannesburg. There his political activism grew stronger and he soon became the most important figure in the fight against Apartheid. In 1964, he was convicted of sabotage and planning armed warfare, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela wasn’t released until 27 years later: in 1994 he won the first democratic elections in Africa.

The movie tries to cover all these points, but biopics generally have a hard time including an entire life in just a few hours. Mandela has the added difficulty of dealing with almost 80 years, the complexity of a racist issue and the man’s global importance. A considerable task, which explains why it took 16 years and 34 scripts before a film was made. Which has unfortunately left its traces: in honor of Mandela, the dramatic composition of the story has been evened out, erasing any trace of abnormality. As a result, Justin Chadwick’s movie is solid but somewhat conventional, as Mandela’s life is told politely and chronologically, like in a schoolbook.