Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu

Kalushi is the true story of a young street salesman from a small township outside of Pretoria in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. After being brutally beaten by apartheid police in 1976, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu (Thabo Rametsi) joins the South African liberation movement and enrolls in military training in Angola. En route to Johannesburg after completion of his training, his fellow soldier and friend Mondi (Thabo Malema) accidentally provokes a shooting on the streets, killing two innocent civilians and sending them to trial. Although Mahlangu did not commit the shooting, the state seeks the highest punishment from the court: death by hanging. Director Mandla Dube prepared for this mix of cinema and history by interviewing several of Mahlangu's friends and family members and poring over old newspapers and national archives to be able to tell this story in the most authentic way. With a crew and cast consisting solely of South African citizens - a rare occurrence in movies about apartheid - Kalushi is an examination of grief as well as an historical illustration of political persecution, and depicts the immense effect the death of Kalushi Mahlangu had on the South African people on that day in June 1976. (Seattle International Film Festival)