Winnie Mandela (2011)

A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.

Director:

Darrell Roodt

Writers:

Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob (inspired by and based upon the book "Winnie Mandela: A Life"), André Pieterse (screenplay)

Stars:

Jennifer Hudson, Terrence Howard, Elias Koteas

3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Hudson	...	Winnie Mandela
Terrence Howard	...	Nelson Mandela
Elias Koteas	...	Major de Vries
Wendy Crewson	...	Mary Botha
Aubrey Poo	...	Peter Magubane
Unathi Kapela	...	Winnie (12 & 13)
Fezeka Ndlazilwana	...	Nancy (8)
Talitha Ndima	...	Nancy (10, 20, 28 & 30)
Professor Mavuso	...	Columbus Madikizela
Nomsa Xaba	...	Makhulu
Bongi Mdongwe	...	Gertrude (as Bongi Mbongwe)
Tom Fairfoot	...	BBC Reporter
Jonathan Rands	...	Judge de Wet
Jennifer Steyn	...	School Inspector
Andre Van Der Merwe	...	School Inspector

Storyline

A drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | forename as title | winnie mandela character | nelson mandela character | south africa | 

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Taglines:

Her courage inspired a nation.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

South Africa Canada

Language:

English Xhosa

Release Date:

6 September 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

Winnie Mandela

Filming Locations:

Kliptown, Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ironwood Films, Equinoxe Films, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the end credits, Neil Sandilands is credited as Dr. Hattingh although the role was played by Albert Maritz.

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Crazy Credits

In the end cast credits, actor Neil Sandilands is listed as playing the character 'Dr. Hattingh,' but then this is followed by the actress Antoinette Louw" as playing the character of his wife with a different spelling of her last name as 'Mrs. Hatingh.'

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #19.12 (2010)

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Soundtracks

Xivandlanyongeni
Music & Lyrics by Yvonne Chaka Chaka & L.M.
Performed by Yvonne Chaka Chaka
Courtesy of Chaka Chaka Promotions CC 2007

User Reviews

If you only know the story of Nelson Mandela then you only know half the story. More movies should be made about this woman.

"She spent nearly 500 days in prison, 400 of them alone in solitary. She was exiled, they harassed her, they nearly killed her. Her contribution to the struggle is beyond calculation." This movie follows the life of Winnie (Hudson) from birth to her life with husband Nelson Mandela (Howard) and beyond. It shows her transformation from shy student to activist. I hate to admit it but I knew next to nothing about this woman before I started the movie. For that reason going in my first thought was, why make a movie about her when Nelson is much more interesting. After watching this my thoughts changed to why don't they make more movies about her. I'm not sure how accurate this movie is but I found it to be very interesting and really made me feel for her. Seeing a woman who was shy and had her life ahead of her end up being broken by seeing the way her life was affected by her husbands sentence gives you conflicting emotions. On one hand you want her to do the things she is doing while at the same time you know she should stop. The end of the movie is so bittersweet that it's hard to feel happy about what happened. The only really bad thing I have to say about this is that it really had the feel of a Lifetime movie. Overall, my feelings went from why a movie about her to why aren't there more movies about her. I highly recommend this. I give it an A-.