South African actor Tumisho Masha (Isidingo, Drum) has been cast as Nelson Mandela in the upcoming film, Mandela’s Gun (a hybrid between a documentary and feature film), which is expected to screen at the Cannes International Film Festival in May 2014.
British filmmaker John Irvin is directing and producing the movie in collaboration with DV8 Films in Johannesburg and the Department of Arts and Culture.
The movie, a combination of a documentary and a feature film, will feature an all-South African cast and crew and will include unseen interviews, rare archives and testimonies while using different cinematic styles and techniques to highlight its periodic relevance.
Based on the eight months Mandela spent travelling Africa prior to his arrest in 1962, the story follows his military training which was later used to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress.
During this time, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie gave Mandela a Makarov pistol, which he buried at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia and which subsequently went missing.
Filming for Mandela’s Gun is set to commence in November 2013.
