Cry Freedom review

1.       Who was your favorite character from the film? Why?

My favorite character was Steve Biko. I loved how he expressed himself, his eloquent yet illuminating attitude: how he answered questions with more questions. He was funny and charismatic, and had a really convincing speech. He knew how to provoke, but he also knew how to take the best out of people, like Donald Woods.  

2.      What was your favorite scene from the film? Why?

I loved the scene of the trial, when Biko was at court. It was funny how he outsmarted the lawyer that was interrogating him and even the judge was baffled. The aforementioned even agreed with him when they discussed why black people called themselves black, and white people called themselves white. I think it was the best scene to illustrate how ridiculous was the segregation made by the apartheid and how stupid was the fear of the so called “reverse-racism” .

3.      How does the film differ from the other films? Use the article from The Guardian to help you

Up until now we only watched movies that centred around the ANC. Although it was the main opposition movement during the apartheid, it was refreshing to see the black consciousness movement boosted by Biko. He reflected a lot about the apartheid, the futility of its reasoning, in an almost educational way. How the discrimination made by white people didn’t make sense. Just like The Guardian’s article said: the black consciousness “focused on making people responsible for their own liberation”. Plus, in this movie we could see much more of how the black communities, non militants, lived, discovering their hobbies, medical centres and recreational activities.

Also, unlike the movie “Goodbye Baffana”, Woods and Biko’s friendship was more realistic than Mandela and Gregory’s. Also, Woods, unlike Gregory, was more active in the fight against apartheid, changing the editorial line of his newspaper and even going to exile to publish his book about Biko (although he also wanted the fame of being a writer).