Silverton Siege

2022
TV-MA
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

4.3K

YOUR RATING

Noxolo Dlamini, Thabo Rametsi, and Stefan Erasmus in Silverton Siege (2022)

After a failed sabotage mission, a trio of anti-apartheid freedom fighters ends up in a tense bank hostage situation. Based on a true story.

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Action Crime Drama

Follows three young freedom fighters who seek refuge in a South African bank in Silverton, and take the bank and its customers hostage and would only release them in exchange for the release... Read allFollows three young freedom fighters who seek refuge in a South African bank in Silverton, and take the bank and its customers hostage and would only release them in exchange for the release of Nelson Mandela.Follows three young freedom fighters who seek refuge in a South African bank in Silverton, and take the bank and its customers hostage and would only release them in exchange for the release of Nelson Mandela.

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IMDb RATING

6.3/10

4.3K

YOUR RATING

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations

Videos1

Trailer 2:03

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Storyline

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Trivia
The movie is inspired by true events; the director's goal was not total accuracy. As quoted in an interview on Netflix.com, director Mandla Dube said: "We don't have a character who has albinism in the real story and the three guys that were in the bank were all males, and I took the liberty to just say, "I want to make one of them female," because I had worked with Noxolo Dlamini on the Netflix series Jiva! Then, obviously, we didn't use the real character names. Once that happened, I said to myself, "Let's have fun. We're not doing a documentary. We're doing a thriller," and all the gloves were off, and we just went to battle to find these characters and to build them and to mold them and shape them into what you see as a final product on the screen"

Goofs
The bank where the siege occurred is in the Pretoria East suburb of Silverton, however the action depicted in the film is shown to take place in and around the historic Church Square in the same city. This is a location far removed from where the event happened.

Quotes
Rachel Paige: In Zulu: translated as "We are only human though other human beings."

User reviews51

Review

Featured review

6/10

It was interesting

I am Afrikaans, I seriously think the director missed an opportunity to show South Africa. A panoramic view of the city. Nobody has a clue where this bank is located. More detail about the type of police vehicles. Even the special forces.... Is that the type of special forces South Africa used in the 1980s? I don't think so.

As far as the rest of the story is concerned, it is a little slow moving. Meaning these ANC fighters were fast moving. They killed people without hesitation. They strongly believed in their ideology. Some were nationalistic, while others put their ideological beliefs above the interests of their own country and everyone wanted a better life. They were against segregation but they wanted to gain political and economical control over the entire country above all else.

It's interesting, but I am sure people want to see more details about who the characters are.... it is difficult for a director and script-writers to tell more about characters, but that is what people expect. Where do they come from? Show their homes. Their home towns. Of everyone. The entire city. Don't just show units arriving and disappearing, show a little detail about these units.

People like to see more detail of everything. Close-ups of the money that was used. People are interested in those things. The telephones. Everything. The director doesn't realize people are interested in details.

The ANC fighters / terrorists were unbelievable. They were fanatics. Sorry to be so blunt. But it is the truth.

Their leaders were moderates, more than the Afrikaners, but their fighters were indoctrinated in Marxist re-education camps.

So I think the screen time is absolutely wasted on a few characters, while you have an entire city you can photograph and camera angles to bring various perspectives to the story.

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