The burning truths

HER first screenplay was about her mother; her latest, “Catch a Fire,” was suggested by her father. Shawn Slovo’s family history is inextricably linked to the modern history of her homeland, South Africa, and her writing gives voice to it.

Slovo’s parents were lifelong activists in the fight against apartheid. Her mother, Ruth First, was killed in 1982 by a letter bomb sent by members of the South African military. Her father, Joe Slovo, was a leader in the military wing of the African National Congress. After his comrade Nelson Mandela was elected president, Slovo was appointed minister for housing and served until his death from cancer in 1995.

On a recent visit to Los Angeles to promote “Catch a Fire,” the true story of innocent man-turned-revolutionary activist Patrick Chamusso, Slovo, 56, talks about film, family and why the story of an antiapartheid hero resonates so strongly today.

When did you decide you wanted to work in film?

My engagement in cinema came from my mother. She was a great filmgoer, and we used to go see all the French new wave. I always wanted to write films, but I didn’t want to live the life of a writer, so I chose to work in film production, as a story editor. I worked in New York for four years as Robert De Niro’s assistant, through “Raging Bull” and “The King of Comedy.” And then after Ruth’s shocking and surprising murder -- all my childhood, I had always expected to get the call, but I always thought it would be Joe -- it was re-evaluation time. I went to film school in England, and I started to write the story that became “A World Apart,” which I think was a way of continuing the dialogue with my mother that I couldn’t have in life.

What led you back to another story set in South Africa, all these years later?

Joe had told me the story of Patrick Chamusso in the mid-1980s, just after the events that are depicted in the film, and Patrick was serving his sentence on Robben Island. When Patrick was released in 1991, I sat in a room in Johannesburg with him for three days and taped his story. Then I went home and put it away. I had to wait the 10 years before pitching it, because back then, people predicted chaos and blood and anarchy in South Africa. That didn’t happen, and after the millennium, particularly after 9/11, I felt it was the right time to tell Patrick’s story.

Do you see similarities between that time in South Africa and the “war on terror” today?

You can’t draw a parallel. Even though the ANC fighters were known as terrorists, the context of that fight was completely different from what is happening now. But what you can draw from it is the solution, because it was unique in history that the transition to democracy was so peaceful. It is those scenes of forgiveness, reconciliation, progress, dialogue, putting the past behind, no eye for an eye. It was that philosophy and idealism and politics in the ANC planning that make it relevant.

Forgiveness is a major theme in the movie, but how can you forgive what happened to your mother?

I can’t. I can try to understand the thinking of these men, but I cannot forgive. But neither do I see revenge factoring in anywhere. I think it’s what Patrick says in the film, that if I can forgive, then I am free, and everybody is free. But when you look into his eyes, you see the pain that will never go away. The thing is, he’s living his life in a positive and progressive way, and that’s the most that you can hope for from that kind of situation.