14 June 2022
Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu (2017)
In 1976, Solomon Mahlangu was a 19-year-old hawker from Mamelodi near Pretoria. After being brutally assaulted by apartheid police, Mahlangu, also known as Kalushi, went into exile to join the liberation movement. This Mandla Dube movie tells his story.
After being trained in Angola, Mahlangu returns to Johannesburg with a comrade, and is caught up in a criminal investigation that ultimately sees him standing trial and facing the death penalty.
The courtroom scenes are where this biopic really comes into its own. The Seattle Times writes, “The script tends to build its narrative on philosophical and religious arguments, but they’re often riveting and articulate, especially in courtroom scenes that take the film beyond the expected limitations of action scenes.”
The outcome of the trial led to Mahlangu going down in history as an anti-apartheid martyr, and this movie is a riveting way to find out more about the life and times of the struggle hero.
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