"We were young and we were students in a society that was a crime against humanity." — Kate Philip
"The present generation does not know what went on in the struggle before liberation." — Nelson Mandela
Breaking the Rules examines one of the 20th century’s greatest dramas — the rise and fall of apartheid — from a startling new perspective.
Set in a contemporary framework, the story opens with a fast-moving scene shot in the recording studio of a popular talk-radio program and on the streets of Johannesburg, the urban heart of South Africa. The topic is race relations today and the dialogue from car to car is hot!
From the present, we flash back to 1948, election day, when the National Party won a massive upset victory and the apartheid state was officially launched. From 1948 our story moves forward, through more than four decades of state-sponsored repression, violence, growing resistance, and finally, liberation and the election of Nelson Mandela as the nation’s first black president.
Throughout the film, the narrative unfolds through the inter-weaving of eyewitness memories and insights of our main characters: liberal parliamentarian Helen Suzman; radical lawyer and ANC activist Albie Sachs; renegade Afrikaner journalist Max du Preez; and student leader Kate Philip. These white activists came from different backgrounds and expressed their opposition to apartheid in different ways. But all of them defied their communities and government, determined to contribute to the struggle against racial injustice and to help bring about a new “nonracial” South Africa.
Shot at key historic locations in South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho, their personal journeys take us from the rigid confines of an authoritarian society in the 1950s ...to the artistic and cultural freedoms of the new South Africa in the 1990s. From the insular world of an all-white Parliament in the 1960s ... to black townships exploding in frustration and violence in the 1970s. From small, isolated cells of political prisoners ... to mass street demonstrations in the 1980s. The story ends in 1994, with the historic election of Nelson Mandela as the nation’s first black president. An epilogue brings us back to the present, where the complexities of South Africa’s ongoing dialogue on race relations, racial identity and reconciliation continue.
Commentary by noted activists, artists, former political prisoners (including Nelson Mandela), religious and political leaders and international supporters of the struggle completes the interwoven narrative and helps us to understand the key historical events of the apartheid era as well as the role played by white activists in the struggle.
Creative re-enactments, rare archival footage and an original musical score written and performed by South African musicians enrich the story.
Breaking the Rules breaks new ground by revealing new perspectives and insights about what is universally seen as a remarkable turning point of our time - the transition to black, majority-ruled democracy in South Africa. What difference did white activists make in the struggle against the powerful apartheid state? At what cost to themselves and their families did they act? How were they received as allies and comrades in the struggle? Why did they choose their particular path of action? And perhaps most important of all, what can we - should we - learn from the decision these individuals made to stand up against the brutal inhumanities of apartheid?
In our search for answers, Breaking the Rules inspires each of us to imagine the potential power of greater racial tolerance ... and examine the proven power of individuals to change the world.
