Synopsis

Patrick Chamusso is a charming and loving husband to his wife Precious, and a caring father to his two young daughters. He works as a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which is a symbol of South Africa’s self-sufficiency at a time when the world was protesting the country’s oppressive apartheid system. In his spare time, Patrick coaches a local boys soccer team. Carefully toeing the hard line imposed on blacks by apartheid, Patrick is completely apolitical, until he comes under suspicion and is arrested for sabotage of the Secunda oil refinery. His alibi is compromised, and Patrick is desperate to shield Precious from a past indiscretion and keep his job. But he is ill-prepared to withstand brutal interrogations by Vos’ men. To his shock and shame, Precious herself is jailed and tortured. Released from custody, Patrick decides to leave his family to join up with the ANC.

What The Critics Say

"The performances of the three leads are uniformly brilliant; each actor has a gift for conveying huge emotion with flickers of facial expressions. Apartheid was a dark time in South Africa's history, and those who lack an understanding of this terrible policy - or those too young to remember it - will gain a vital insight in "Catch a Fire". Noyce cleverly avoids making this film black-and-white; no one is entirely good, and no one is entirely bad. 9/10" Samuel Downing OURBRISBANE "When someone makes a movie, a quarter of a century from now, about the American occupation of Iraq, it's going to look like "Catch a Fire", and it's going to be enraging." MaryAnn Johanson FLICK FILOSOPHER "Catch a Fire could spark a few with this incendiary notion: Torture breeds terrorists." Amy Biancolli HOUSTON CHRONICLE "Catch a Fire" is an excellent real-life story with a social conscience." Linda Cook QUAD CITY TIMES "...it's the second one that I've seen recently, along with "Road To Guantanamo", where torturing people actually doesn't make them obey anything, it just pushes them to extreme positions. I find them pretty gruelling to sit through. But I think Derek Luke's performance in this, particularly, is just stunning. I think this is a tremendously compassionate film. 4 STARS." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES

"I suspect the film wants us, and particularly the American public, to consider what the US Government is doing in the name of its war on terrorism. Catch A Fire is about how torture and repression turns Chamusso (American actor Derek Luke) from a law-abiding citizen and family man into a "terrorist" for the African National Congress. Somewhat surprising is another idea - that the same repression victimises those who wield it." Paul Byrnes SYDNEY MORNING HERALD "Noyce has sculpted a powerful and resonant portrait of a country gone insane trying to hold tightly to an intrinsically racist and immoral law." Phoebe Flowers SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL "An explosive real life screen thriller. Derek Luke gives an Oscar-worthy performance." Pete Hammond MAXIM "'Catch a Fire' is a stirring political thriller with charismatic performances and sure-handed direction by Phillip Noyce." John P McCarthy REELTALK MOVIE REVIEWS "This is a starkly impressive film and a reminder that one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Director, Philip Noyce, filmed on location in South Africa, which is a major plus, but what really impresses here is the way Noyce and writer Shawn Slovo, daughter of militant ANC member Joe Slovo, take the trouble to compare the effect Apartheid had on two families, one black and one white. 4 STARS." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES

In Real Life - Patrick Chamusso Patrick Chamusso was born into a rural Mozambique family in 1950. His father was a migrant laborer who worked over the border in South Africa as a miner. As a teenager, Patrick followed his father to South Africa, taking odd jobs in the mines. He then worked as a house painter and street photographer. He was also a talented soccer player, playing for local leagues. By his early twenties, he was doing well enough to buy a car and a camera, unusual for a young black South African at that time. One day in the 1970s, he was stopped and his car was searched by the police. Patrick’s camera was confiscated as being suspicious; there had been acts of ANC sabotage in the area, and Patrick was suspected of spying for the organization. He was arrested and deported to Mozambique. His camera, and car, was never given back to him. Patrick got forged papers so he could return to South Africa. He settled in Secunda, a town several hours east of Johannesburg. He got a job at the oil refinery there, which was one of the largest in the world. Well-liked and a hard worker, he advanced quickly at the plant. His soccer-playing prowess also made him popular at the refinery and in the community. On May 31st, 1980, the ANC’s military wing (MK) bombed the Secunda plant, along with two other installations. Patrick was arrested as a suspect in June 1980. Though he was completely innocent, the police suspected him of having helped the ANC gain access to the plant. South African police at that time had the power to hold people suspected of political crimes indefinitely, without access to a lawyer or family. Patrick’s torture was so harsh that when he was released, he was a changed man. Leaving his family behind, he crossed the border illegally into Mozambique and traveled to the capital, Maputo, where the ANC had its regional headquarters. There, he was initially held in a detention camp while the ANC checked out his story and made sure that he was not a South African police mole. Once accepted he trained with and met MK commander Joe Slovo, one of the few senior white members of the ANC and who was running Special Ops. Patrick lobbied to Joe that with his inside knowledge of the Secunda refinery, he could bring the plant to a standstill. It was agreed he would make a one man attack. On the day of the operation, October 21st, 1981, Patrick attached land mines to his body and made his successfully made his way inside the refinery. The first landmine went off. But before the second exploded Police arrived, found it and then removed the fuse. Six days later, on October 27th, after a massive manhunt, Patrick was caught. He was held for nine months without trial, during which time he was brutally tortured. In August 1982. Patrick was found guilty on three counts of contravening the Terrorism Act and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Patrick served nearly 10 years on Robben Island until he was amnestied and released in late 1991, along with all political prisoners. Today, Patrick lives in northeast South Africa with his wife Conney, whom he married after his release from prison. Patrick and Conney have three children of their own, and have foster-parented 80 more, all of the latter orphans. Their orphanage is named Two Sisters. The Inside Story "Patrick Chamusso is a remarkable man, and an inspiration to us all," says internationally acclaimed director Phillip Noyce. "He's a man who goes beyond prejudice and beyond hatred to realize that as humans, if we ever want to be free, we have to learn to forgive." The idea for the screenplay about this real life hero was first suggest two decades ago by Shawn Slovo's late father Joe Slovo, a former head of the military wing (MK) of the African National Congress (ANC), and later a Cabinet member in Nelson Mandela’s first (post-apartheid) government. Joe told Shawn that if she ever wanted to write a story about the ANC’s armed struggle against apartheid, then she should tell the story of one of the movement’s heroes, Patrick Chamusso who in 1981, had attacked the Secunda Oil Refinery. This coal-to-oil refinery was a symbol of South Africa’s self-sufficiency at a time when the much of the rest of the world was instituting economic sanctions and boycotts against the apartheid regime. In late 1991, when Chamusso was released from Robben Island as part of the amnesty granted to all political prisoners, Joe put Shawn in touch with him. Just two weeks after his release from prison, Shawn spent several days with Chamusso as the newly freed hero told her his story. Those conversations would form the foundation of "Catch a Fire". "I recognized in him someone who audiences all over the world could identify with," Shawn remembers. "He’s not a typical hero of South Africa’s struggle, in that he is a man who had no political history, education, or background before joining the ANC. He is an ordinary man who loved his family, had a good job, and was passionate about 'soccer'. But when things went wrong, instead of giving in or being immobilized, he decided to take control. That, to me, is extremely heroic." But despite the meeting Shawn put aside her plans and put her tapes away in a drawer and waited. "I didn’t feel like there was a perspective in place yet to tell the story; things had not settled," she said. The history of South Africa is very much intertwined with that of the Slovo family. In the 1960s, the family faced imprisonment for their anti-apartheid actions, and were forced to flee their country. Joe’s wife (Shawn and Robyn’s mother) Ruth First was assassinated on August 17th 1982 by the South African Bureau Of State Security after she opened a letter bomb which was sent to her at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique. Robyn attended school and college in the U.K before her first return visit to South Africa in the 1990s. "Even though I grew up in England and live and work in the U.K," she says, "I still feel very South African." In 1997, Robyn joined George Faber and Charles Pattinson in forming Company Pictures. Recent Company credits include Stephen Hopkins "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers". Robyn and Shawn were reunited for the film when Robyn came onboard as a producer. Also joining as a producer was Working Title co-chairman, Tim Bevan "I’ve always believed that Shawn's best writing comes when she writes personally. When she told us Chamusso’s story, we commissioned it right away. I felt his story had a universality in its emotion and its humanity that would appeal to audiences everywhere. This is a film we’re proud to have made," he said. With Robyn, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner signed on the next to join the production team were Mirage Enterprises partners Academy Award winner Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient") and Academy Award, David di Donatello Award and, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres Medal recipient Sydney Pollack ("Out of Africa") who signed on to produce and executive-produce, respectively. Shawn continued to refine the script until 2004 when Mirage’s Bruna Papandrea sent it to Phillip Noyce. Noyce, who was looking for another project was impressed, noting the screenplay "had all the ingredients that would bring audiences to the cinema; a love story, a war story, an adventure story, and a story very relevant to today. It’s about a particular time and place, but it speaks to all of us in a much larger and inspiring context." Noyce, Shawn and Robyn set about researching the film. "For three or four months, I did virtually nothing else but meet people, trying to ascertain the mood in South Africa in the early '80s and trying to understand things from both a black and a white South African viewpoint," Noyce revealed. What They Had To Say "I wanted to sit Chamusso down and intensively debrief him," recalls Noyce. "I wanted to get him to tell me the story of his life as he remembered it, from birth right through to the present day. For about two days, he just spoke into a camera and a microphone, going over it all."
"I want people in theaters to cheer for Patrick, because that is what I did when I read the script," states Luke. "This man lives an ordinary life; he’s made mistakes, and he’s trying to get on with it. When he comes up against adversity, his hand is forced; as a man, when you can’t defend your family you feel vulnerable. Patrick found the strength to do something."
"I found in Derek a man who brings not only emotion to his portrayal of Patrick, revealing the inner core of his humanity, but also an actor who brings a deep dignity to the role," says Noyce. "That was so important for our movie."
"I certainly didn’t want to write in a stereotypical corrupt apartheid police element. Nic is an intelligent man who truly believes that if the ANC takes power, his country will be destroyed," says Shawn Slovo. "He’s fighting to protect what he feels is precious in his life; family, and law and order. At the same time, he is smart enough to sense that he’s on the losing side. So that layered in a beautiful contradiction at the core of his character for Tim to work with."
"South African history is not a one-sided story. South Africa was and is a very complicated place; we are trying to tell all sides of the story, including that of the white South African policeman," notes Robyn. "Through the relationship between these two men – a South African and an Afrikaner – you see the wider picture of the country at that time, and understand both sides. This is a moving story about what it’s like to have your life fundamentally changed on you, and to struggle for what you believe in," says Academy Award winner Tim Robbins who plays Colonel Nic Vos.
"I don’t think Derek truly understood what it was like to be black in South Africa during the 1980s until I took him to Cape Town, to Robben Island," says Phillip Noyce. "This place was infamous; it was where Mandela was incarcerated for over two decades, and where Patrick spent ten years as a political prisoner of the apartheid regime. Derek went to the isolation cells where the ANC leaders had been imprisoned, and then down the corridor to one cell in particular; a little cubicle where Mandela had spent so many years. Derek spent a long time in there, and he lay down in the space where Mandela had slept."
"Tim is a stickler for detail and authenticity," director Noyce revealed. "He also always wanted to go deeper and bring out the humanity in the man; he really needed to get a handle on the man’s motives, to discover how a man like Vos can take such strong actions against the enemies of the country that he so loves." Inside The Secret Police To further help the actor prepare, Robyn Slovo found a real-life Security Branch (B.O.S.S.)policeman from the 1980s, Hentie Botha. "Part of the research meant meeting with a lot of these people and having them on the set. A lot of my childhood memories are of the house being raided and my parents being arrested," says Robyn. "These men were the enemy. But one thing I have learned in talking to them is that they believed in the cause and the struggle that they were involved in. I feel a lot of personal pain and sorrow about that, yet these people are still a part of South Africa." Botha was on the real-life level of, and had been through many of the same experiences as, Robbins’ character; he was a family man who dedicated his life to preserving the status quo. Botha later also acted as an on-set advisor, advising Robbins, costume designer Reza Levy, and the crew how a 1980s South African policeman behaved and dressed. Robbins spent many days talking with Botha, and the two of them went to Vlakplaas, the infamous interrogation center used by the Security Branch to coerce black South Africans into turning traitor (Askaris). The blacks would either leave there as traitors who would work undercover for the apartheid regime, or they would leave there dead. "Tim had to try and understand this man who admitted that torture was regularly used as a weapon against opponents," says Noyce. So what did the star of "The Shawshank Redemption" have to say on the actions of the dreaded Police? "To this day, I don’t understand how we can think that torture can actually elicit information. It doesn’t; it gets you what you want to hear, in that people will say anything for the pain to stop." And what does he see in the future for South Africa? "The real hope for South Africa is in the young, because they have been in school together, which had never happened before," he said adding, "But for the past decade or so, it has." The Verdict "If you have a conscience, "Catch A Fire" will sorely test it. It will cut through the heart and agonize the soul. Much kudos to Australian director Phillip Noyce and writer Shawn Slovo who, coupled to impressive performances from the richly talented Tim Robbins and Derek Luke, bring to life this story based on a real life hero named Patrick Chamusso who, through circumstances became a member of the ANC. Many will ask why Noyce would make a film about apartheid at this time. The reason is simple. There's a war in Iraq and there's a hell-hole in South America named Guantánamo Bay. Here civil rights are still abused, just as they were under the white supremecy rule which held sway over the black population of South Africa from 1948 to 1994. "Catch A Fire" is a vehicle to remind us of a terrible past. It also shows that we keep making the same mistakes, over and over again. The images from D.O.P's Ron Fortunato & Garry Phillips; the colorful soundtrack; the stark setting, and the performances of all the cast (including Bonnie Henna as Precious) create a rich tapestry on the screen. Highly recommended. 4 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "CATCH A FIRE" stars .......
Academy Award winner Tim Robbins ["Arlington Road", "The Truth About Charlie", "Mystic River" and "War of the Worlds"]; Bonnie Henna ["Drum"]; Michele Burgers ["Friends", "Jump The Gun" and "Malunde"]; Robert Hobbs ["Bravo Two Zero", "Hey Boy", "In My Country" and "The Trail"], Charlotte Savage ["Dazzle", "Hoodlum & Son" and "Duma"] and Derek Luke ["Antwone Fisher", "Pieces Of April", "Spartan" and "Friday Night Lights"] as Patrick.
"CATCH A FIRE" was .......
directed by Australian Screen Directors Association Lifetime Achievement Award & AFI Award winner Phillip Noyce ["Newsfront", "The Bone Collector", "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and "The Quiet American"]; screenplay by Shawn Slovo ["Balada da Praia dos Cães", "A World Apart" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"]; edited by Five Time AFI Award winner Jill Bilcock A.C.E ["Moulin Rouge!", "Strictly Ballroom", "Head On" and "Japanese Story"]; directors of photography Ron Fortunato A.S.C ["Nil by Mouth" and "Wild About Harry"] and Garry Phillips ["Feeling Sexy", "Better Than Sex", "Gettin' Square" and "Candy"]; original music by Philip Miller ["The Man Who Drove with Mandela", "Forgiveness" and "The Flyer"] production design by Johnny Breedt ["Duma", "Hotel Rwanda" and "The Breed"] and costume design by Reza Levy ["The Interpreter" and "Cape of Good Hope"]. Run Time 143 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Focus Features - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved