#OnTheBigScreen: Churchill, Xhosa rites and outlaws

Darkest Hour

Directed by Joe Wright, from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, this powerful drama is nominated for six Oscars and tells the inspiring story of four weeks in 1940 during which Churchill’s courage to lead changed the course of world history. During the early days of World War II, with the fall of France imminent, Britain faces its darkest hour as the threat of invasion looms. As the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces advance, and with the Allied army cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk, the fate of Western Europe hangs on the leadership of the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Academy Award nominee Gary Oldman). While manoeuvring his political rivals, he must confront the ultimate choice: negotiate with Hitler and save the British people at a terrible cost or rally the nation and fight on against incredible odds.

“Words can, and do, change the world. This is precisely what happened through Winston Churchill in 1940,” says BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and producer McCarten. The linchpins of his original screenplay for Darkest Hour were the three speeches that Churchill wrote and delivered between May and June 1940. “He was under intense political and personal pressure, yet he was spurred to such heights in so few days – over and over again.”

Inxeba (The Wound)

Directed and written by John Trengove, this controversial local film made its debut at 2017’s Sundance Film Festival, before opening the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section, and is a ripe-for-controversy exploration of sexuality - more specifically, same-sex desire - within the context of initiation schools. Xolani, a lonely factory worker, joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best-kept secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel.

“The Wound was born out of a desire to push back against clichéd stereotypes of black masculinity perpetuated inside and outside of African cinema,” says writer-director Trengrove, whose critically acclaimed drama explores tradition and sexuality and is set amid the Xhosa rites of passage into manhood.

Den of Thieves

This gritty crime drama follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the US Federal Reserve Bank.

Written and directed by Christian Gudegast, with Gerard Butler, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Curtis Jackson.

With Den of Thieves, Gudegast was particularly drawn to the complex relationships between professional bank robbers and the detectives who hunt them. “I was fascinated by the specificity of their worlds,” says Gudegast, “and how these two crews operate. Understanding what they do, and why they do it, became the fuel for the movie.”

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