Red Dust

A film set in a South African town. Apartheid is over. The country is settling its past through a commission. Sarah is a lawyer in New York. South African; she left years ago and is now coming back. She comes for a case. Her client is a childhood friend. The client's name is Alex Mpondo. He is now a member of parliament and in those years he was detained and tortured. On the other side is Dirk Hendricks. A former security policeman; he is applying for amnesty. The condition of amnesty is set: he must tell everything, in full. From there the film is a story of hearings. The commission sits, witnesses are heard, and the events are opened one by one. One person is missing. Steve was detained in those years and never seen again. His family want to know where the body is. Mpondo has a problem. He does not remember what he said under torture and is afraid to find out. What the narrative is interested in is not justice but knowledge: its idea is that the commission offers information rather than punishment, and that what a victim learns can wound as much as punishment would. Hendricks is not drawn as likeable but is not a cartoon either. He remembers, he tells, and he does not appear sorry. The town is inside the narrative. Everyone knows everyone and both sides still live there. The source is Gillian Slovo's novel; her family was inside the political struggle of the period. It was shot in South Africa. This is one of Tom Hooper's early films. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Hilary Swank, Jamie Bartlett, Ian Roberts and Marius Weyers are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone curious about transitional justice and courtroom drama. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a clear outcome; the narrative gives no side a full closure and does so on purpose.