The Giant Is Falling

The African National Congress party headed by President Jacob Zuma took a pounding in the local elections in 2016. The result was the party's worst election defeat since it came to power in 1994. Are the electoral losses entirely attributable to Zuma's questionable leadership, or is the situation more complex? Filmmaker Rehad Desai delves into South Africa's recent past to explain this historic event, and looks back critically and with undisguised amazement at decades of uninterrupted ANC politics. Has anything come of the dream that people cherished in the days of Nelson Mandela: an exemplary South Africa, free of racism and poverty? Desai approaches his investigation with thoroughness and, where possible, a sense of humor. Interviews with politicians, historians and journalists are interspersed with archive footage, including reports of the Marikana massacre of 2012. At the end of an intense and candid inquiry, Desai draws his conclusions about the future of the country and the once unassailable ANC. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)