Pains of apartheid

Making “In My Country” two years ago in South Africa was an emotionally draining experience for veteran director John Boorman.

The drama, which opens today, is set against the backdrop of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings that took place in the country from 1996 to 1998 to investigate human rights abuses under apartheid. Chaired by Nobel Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, the commission subscribed to the African tribal principle of ubuntu, a nonviolent way of solving transgressions with the guilty party confessing the crime to the victim or their family and asking for forgiveness.

In the case of the TRC, the perpetrators of the abuse -- usually murder or torture -- would allow themselves to be confronted by their victims. And if they told the truth, expressed remorse and proved they were only acting under orders, they would be granted amnesty.

Several of the more than 21,000 hearings are re-created in the film. “We were trying to reconstruct them with the same level of emotion they had originally,” Boorman, 72, says over a morning tea at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. “Because all the extras and everybody had similar experiences because apartheid touched everybody -- even the white population because they either were ashamed of what they did or didn’t do -- it all came up in the courtroom scenes. There was so much emotion you could cut it with a knife.”

As emotional as the experience was, Boorman (“Deliverance,” “Hope and Glory”) says the end result was something close to exhilaration for cast and crew. “It was cathartic to come through all of that and hear all of their stories, not just the ones on the screen but also the ones in the crew.”

“In My Country,” which was shot primarily in Cape Town, stars Samuel L. Jackson in a rare romantic leading role as Langston Whitfield, a Washington Post journalist, who, though skeptical of the hearings, is sent to cover the trials. Juliette Binoche plays Anna, a married Afrikaans poet covering the trials for South African radio and NPR in the United States, who is hopeful of the outcome of the TRC hearings. And Brendan Gleeson, who previously appeared in Boorman’s “The General” and “The Tailor of Panama,” plays Col. De Jager, a psychopathic torturer of the SA Police who is interviewed by Whitfield.

Boorman auditioned several actors for the role of De Jager, but he couldn’t find one in South Africa to play him. “The reason was that they couldn’t bring themselves to do that role,” he says. “They all somehow held back. They couldn’t think themselves into that horrific kind of character. So I sent for my faithful Brendan Gleeson.”

The London native says even Gleeson had to dig deep within himself. “He had to try and discover what went down in a mind of a man like that,” Boorman says. “It’s very hard to reach that kind of place for any actor.”

By contrast, Jackson got ahold of the script early in the pre-production and contacted the director.

“I like him,” Boorman says. “He’s sharp, quick-witted, intelligent and skeptical. And there is something you feel within Sam that could explode within every minute.”

Creating a love story between Anna and Langston wasn’t to make it more palatable for viewers. Antjie Krog, the Afrikaans poet who covered the TRC and wrote the book on which the film was based -- “Country of My Skull” -- had an affair during the hearings. “In all of these harrowing days, one after another, she had this need for some consolation,” Boorman says. “That was sort of our starting point.”

Introducing an African American journalist as the main protagonist was a way for the “audience to enter the story and share his ignorance [of the situation],” Boorman says. “He thinks of himself as an African American, but when he gets there, the black Africans think of him as just an American. She on the other hand thinks of herself as a South African. The idea was that their relationship was in some ways reflecting the wider relationship between black and whites and the attempts to bring them together.”

Boorman was involved with the project for several years -- the major studios turned it down -- before money was “cobbled together” from various sources to get the film made.

“He’s very special,” says producer Mike Medavoy, who previously worked with Boorman on 1981’s “Excalibur.”

“He’s intellectually smart and gets to the heart and cares about things,” Medavoy adds.

“In My Country” is scheduled to open next month in South Africa, Boorman says. “But we have had a number of screenings. They had it at the Cape Town Film Festival and people were crying. After the screening people wouldn’t leave the theater. They were sitting and talking to each other.”

Boorman gave former South African President Nelson Mandela a DVD copy of the film last April. Mandela’s assistant told Boorman that Mandela, 86, probably couldn’t watch the film in just one sitting. “His assistant said, ‘He nods off.’ ”

The director, though, happily reports that Mandela was “glued to it.” And he’s been widely quoted as telling every South African to see the film.