Endgame Page #3

Synopsis: A story based on the covert discussions that brought down the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Genre: Drama, History
Director(s): Pete Travis
Production: Monterey Media
  Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 14 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.3
Metacritic:
55
Rotten Tomatoes:
71%
PG-13
Year:
2009
109 min
Website
864 Views


It blinds us all from seeing

the humanity of the other.

Your hands are not

so clean either, Mr Mbeki.

What is your campaign of terror

based on if not fear?

The culture of fear is not of

our making, Professor.

We learnt it at the feet

of our masters.

You're looking tired, Mr Mandela.

We've kept you talking too late again.

Fortunately, I had no other

plans tonight.

I look forward to our next

conversation, Doctor.

For a moment I thought you said,

'negotiation'.

My ear's playing tricks on me.

Good night, Doctor.

- Mr. Coatsee.

- Good night.

Stop all contact with the

other Robben Islanders.

We don't need their

Greek Chorus in his ear.

Alright.

And get him a suit for next time.

We'll get more out of him

if he thinks he's an equal.

Okay. It's a good idea.

I'll leave you to it.

I just think things might free up

a bit without an outsider present.

Bored with us already?

It's a tactical withdrawal.

So, Professor.

When you first saw me,

did you think...

'Ah, so that's what a f***ing,

communist terrorist looks like'?

And, you? Did you think...

'Ah, so that's what a f***ing

racist Boer looks like'?

No doubt, you assume our claim

to be non-racial...

is just a rhetoric of political

convenience, but you are mistaken.

It's what defines us.

And you are mistaken in your

assumptions about us, Mr Mbeki.

Our fear doesn't

stem from propaganda...

but from the deep rooted knowledge

that one day we will be punished...

for all the terrible wrongs

we have inflicted.

Good night, Professor.

Goodnight.

Hello?

Professor?

Can I help you?

Young gave his assurance the place

was clean of bugs.

I couldn't take the chance.

I hope to God, you don't make me

regret what I'm about to do.

To the press and parliament,

Botha's still on message that...

you must abandon your weapons before

he'll conduct a dialogue with you.

But, my presence here suggests

otherwise.

Botha knows about these talks?

I'm instructed to report back

to him via Doctor Barnard...

in National Intelligence.

I'm to be their Trojan horse.

You take a risk telling

me this, Professor.

It would be a risk not telling you.

Without trust, we'll achieve nothing.

Tambo says if we are to...

win our freedom

we must first...

banish bitterness.

This will be the test of it.

For all of us.

Get him ready.

Let's give him a taste

of what he's been missing.

If you could just turn around.

- Okay. It's good?

- Ja.

I've lost the knack

of tying them over the years.

Well, shall we?

Got it. I've got it.

Barnard.

Did he enjoy his day of freedom?

Enough to get a taste for it,

let's hope.

- And the UK talks?

- Work in progress.

I need more than that to placate

the bloody doves in Cabinet.

Sir, the Cabinet must know

absolutely nothing about this.

If some loose lips blabs to CNN the

whole process could implode on us.

You sold me these talks

to get the inside track on the ANC.

To give us leverage over Mandela.

If you're not going to deliver.

What's the damn point?

I have his exact words

here somewhere.

Leave us.

I do have a home to go to, Doctor.

At the risk of invoking more accusations

that I'm gullible and naive, I repeat...

In my view, Mbeki, is a man

the government can do business with.

A view based on what?

Your cosy fireside chats?

His existential ramblings

about universal suffrage?

One can respect a man's commitment

to his ideals...

without sharing his methods

of achieving them.

Forgive me, if I don't also genuflect

at his altar of self government.

Talk is cheap, Professor.

He made no concessions, did he?

Not one.

His so called conversion to moderation

is a ploy, orchestrated by Tambo.

And you...

you fell for it.

- Can I go home?

- Not yet.

Mandela sent his lawyer with

a message for me.

They've isolated him from Sisulu

and the other Robben Islanders.

He's been holding secret talks with

Doctor Barnard from the N.I. S...

who reports back to Botha.

I pressed Bizoz on the content

of the meetings.

He claims Nelson said nothing.

He wanted to assure me he's

acting in good faith.

He's walking into a trap.

Botha knows about the U.K. talks.

Barnard recruited Esterhuyse

to act as his informer.

They're playing 'divide and rule'

with us.

Pretoria will claim that

South Africa's most famous prisoner...

wanted a peaceful settlement but

the ANC terrorists...

rejected it to pursue their

doctrine of violence.

Madiba would never fall for such

a trick.

How do we know what

his mental state is?

The pressure he's under?

What concessions he'll make

in return for his freedom?

If he's so solid with us

why not tell us what he's doing?

Why exclude you, of all people.

This Esterhuyse,

do you trust him?

Yes.

A man you've barely

known a few hours?

Yet, I'm supposed

to doubt a man I've known a lifetime.

Who sacrificed everything for us.

If trust is the issue...

perhaps it is my judgement

which is in doubt.

If we let ourselves be tainted

by distrust...

Botha's tactics will succeed.

We play into his hands.

The bombing came less than 24 hours

after President Botha told parliament...

that security forces had uncovered

a terrorist cell in Natal...

and arrested 23 suspected insurgents.

We understand that two of

the terrorists evaded capture.

Security Forces have stepped up

their search in the Soweto area.

Get in here.

I'm home, Marie.

Anyone home?

Target is confirmed.

Tomorrow at twelve p.m.

Sure.

And the bloodshed

in South Africa today...

after a bomb exploded

outside a shopping centre...

in Roodeport, near Johannesburg.

Four civilians were killed

and 18 others injured.

A spokesman claimed that

the target was a nearby bank.

He declined to give details on the

operational difficulties...

which caused the explosion.

Is that how you justify your campaign

of indiscriminate bombings...

the killing of innocent civilians?

We have never supported

the killing of civilians.

Tell that to the women

and children that you maim and kill...

with your limpet bombs and

your pipe bombs.

Or are dead children legitimate

collateral damage...

to promote your cycle of terror?

I can quote you chapter and verse

on dead children, Professor.

Names, ages and dates,

my son included.

I think a break

is in order, gentlemen.

ANC policy is,

and always has been...

that only military and economic

targets are legitimate.

If it smells like crap and

it sounds like crap...

chances are, it is crap.

Not once have I tried to justify...

the excesses of

the South African Security Forces.

Yet, you persist in spouting this

pre-digested dogma at me.

Maybe they think if they say it

enough times, we'll buy it.

This really is not productive,

so either we move on...

The timing, of the Roodeport

bomb isn't coincidental.

Lusaka authorised it...

in the full knowledge of our meetings.

It's the old terror tactic...

once the talking starts,

step up the violence.

If you think that's going

to strengthen your hand...

Rate this script:4.3 / 3 votes

Robert Harvey

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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