#OnTheBigScreen: Avengers: Endgame, The Act Of Defiance and The Aftermath

Avengers: Endgame

Hailed as the most highly anticipated film ever in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), marking the 22^nd  Marvel Studios film to date and concluding the climactic cataclysmic events that unfolded in the top-grossing film of 2018 – Avengers: Infinity War. It brings to the big screen the highest stakes and the deadliest showdown between the Avengers and the universe’s most powerful and deadliest villain, Thanos. It picks up with the Avengers having been soundly defeated by Thanos, who, after collecting the six Infinity Stones, imposed his twisted will on all of humanity and randomly wiped out half of the world’s population, including many of the Avengers. In the aftermath of the destruction, the remaining Avengers are faced with their biggest challenge yet – finding the resolve within themselves to get off the mat and find a way to defeat Thanos once and for all.

Two of the most successful and respected directors over the last decade, Anthony and Joe Russo, return to helm their fourth MCU film. The challenge of writing Avengers: Endgame fell into the seasoned hands of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, whose long history with Marvel Studios and the Russo brothers helped them streamline the process for the script and story.

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The Act Of Defiance

Sympathetic white Afrikaner lawyer Bram Fischer risks his career and family to defend Nelson Mandela and his inner circle. This riveting drama is a co-production between South Africa and The Netherlands and expertly combines nail-biting political and courtroom intrigue to explore South Africa’s seminal struggle against racism and the little-known Jewish figures who sought to end entrenched discrimination in their country.

Based on Joel Joffe’s book, The State Vs. Nelson Mandela, the film is written and directed by Jean Van De Velde and won the Audience Award at the 2017 Movies that Matter Film Festival in the Hague, The Netherlands.

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The Aftermath

This old-fashioned war-time romance is set in postwar Germany in 1946. Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter winter to be reunited with her husband Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city. But as they set off for their new home, Rachael is stunned to discover that Lewis has made an unexpected decision: They will be sharing the grand house with its previous owners, a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) and his troubled daughter. In this charged atmosphere, enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal.

Directed by James Kent and written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, based on the novel of the same name by Rhidian Brook. 

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Die Walküre

Opera buffs can indulge in the screening of Robert Lepage’s high-tech staging the Metropolitan Opera’s Die Walküre. The second opera in Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle, it revolves around the incestuous and adulterous love that sparks between twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. Infuriated by their transgression, Fricka (the goddess of marriage) demands that they are punished. Their father Wotan orders Brünnhilde to exact vengeance on behalf of Sieglinde’s jilted husband, with terrible consequences. Soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, Wotan’s willful warrior daughter, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek play the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde.

Conducted by Philippe Jordan, Die Walküre has been praised for the strength of its cast and conductor.

It will screen from 27 April 2019 at Rosebank Nouveau, Gateway Commercial, Brooklyn Nouveau and V&A Waterfront Nouveau, as well as Somerset and Blue Route Mall in Cape Town, Bedford Square in Johannesburg and Garden Route Mall in George. 

The Least Of These: The Graham Staines Story

As the social fabric of life in rural India disintegrates in the late 1990s, journalist Manav Banerjee (Sharman Joshi) moves with his pregnant wife to the town of Orissa in hope of a better life and the promise of a lucrative career. When speculation mounts that local Australian missionary Graham Staines (Stephen Baldwin) is illegally proselytising leprosy patients, Manav agrees to investigate undercover for the newspaper. What he finds is a series of revelations that are difficult to fathom and even harder to explain, and Manav is forced to make a choice between his own ambition and the truth. In the end, his actions spark a tragic event that is felt around the world.

Based on a true story and shot on location in India, this faith-based drama from director Aneesh Daniel and screenwriter Andrew Matthew illustrates the power of love, hope and forgiveness to overcome hate.

Read more about the latest and upcoming film releases: writingstudio.co.za/lets-go-to-the-movies.