Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

A boy herds his father`s cattle over the Transkei hills. A teenager cries out as he`s ritually circumcised, `I am a man!` A young lawyer buys himself sharp suits and fast cars in post-war Johannesburg. A reluctant advocate for his people, swept up in the murderous repressions of apartheid South Africa, becomes an armed revolutionary. A wanted man on the run becomes a prisoner shut away on Robben Island to be forgotten forever. Over the long years helearns to forgive, and to win the trust of his enemies. A father and grandfather who has never known his children and grandchildren comes out of prison to lead his people. The boy who ran barefoot over the hills becomes the first President of a free South Africa. No man in history has done what Nelson Mandela has done. In changing himself from warrior to peacemaker, he transformed his country and set an example to the world. But the price he paid was heavy. Separated after two short years from the love of his life, Winnie, he was helpless to protect her from the apartheid state, which did all it could to break her spirit. Even as he was teaching himself to forgive, she was learning to hate. When at last he was free to lead South Africa in peace, she was calling for war. He came out of prison to find himself a hero to the world, but he had lost the one woman whose picture had been by his side all through the long lonely years. An old man walks alone in the spectacular countryside of his native Transkei. His prodigious life was inspired by two fundamental dreams: freedom for his people and his love for a woman. And he couldn`t have both.