Endgame Grandstands the Final Days of Apartheid

Endgame, about the covert negotiations in the '80s that helped bring down apartheid, follows Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), a public affairs director for a British gold-mining firm. Miller secretly assembles talks between African National Congress representatives led by Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and powerful Afrikaners like philosophy prof Will...

By Melissa Anderson

January 28, 2010

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Endgame, about the covert negotiations in the '80s that helped bring down apartheid, follows Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), a public affairs director for a British gold-mining firm. Miller secretly assembles talks between African National Congress representatives led by Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and powerful Afrikaners like philosophy prof Will Esterhuyse (William Hurt). Meanwhile, Niel Barnard (Mark Strong), South Africa's reptilian head of intelligence, starts his own clandestine chats with Nelson Mandela (Clarke Peters) in the hopes of dividing and conquering African National Congress leadership. Written by U.K.-TV vet Paula Milne, Endgame has its share of grandstanding dialogue: "I cannot stand by and do nothing while my country is reduced to ashes," booms Hurt. But the principals, especially Ejiofor, rise above the starchiness that often hampers portrayals of recent, monumental history.

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Melissa Anderson is the senior film critic at the Village Voice, for which she first began writing in 2000. Her work also appears in the publications of the Voice’s film partner, Voice Media Group: LA Weekly, Denver Westword, Phoenix New Times, Miami New Times, Broward-Palm Beach New Times, Houston Press and Dallas Observer.