Invictus

If the response to the trailer for Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Invictus” is any indication, this version of John Carlin’s wonderful book, Playing the Enemy, looks set to be a blockbuster with Oscar written all over it. Opening on December 11 in the US, it tells the story of how then President Nelson Mandela used rugby, and Afrikanerdom’s passion for it, to knit together the new South Africa in 1995. The film’s timing could not be better. Next year all eyes will be on South Africa as it hosts the 2010 FIFA World Cup. If the film lives up to the promise of the trailer, it will provide a fitting point of reference and curtain raiser for the millions the World Cup is about to introduce to South Africa for the first time.