Completed - ENGLISH - Drama - 107 minutes
As Apartheid crumbles in South Africa, a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men.
Year of production : 2016 Director(s) : Oliver SCHMITZ Writer(s) : Brian COX Cast : Steve COOGAN, Andrea RISEBOROUGH Producer(s) : Anant SINGH (Distant Horizon), Brian COX (Videovision Entertainment)
South Africa, 1987. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court’s sentence - seems a foregone conclusion.Hotshot lawyer John Weber reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case.A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation’s most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions: befriending the inmates over the years while having to assist their eventual execution.As the court hearings progress, the case offers John the opportunity to put the entire system of legally sanctioned murder on trial. How can one man take such a dual role of friend and executioner, becoming both shepherd and butcher?Inspired by true events, this is the story that puts death penalty on trial and changes history.
Country(ies) : SOUTH AFRICA
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Berlinale - Berlin IFF 2016