Uhuru Productions

When a potentially devastating new virus emerges in early 2020, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Rehad Desai is already following a vaccine clinical trial that could finally end the decades-long HIV pandemic. Widening his lens to trace this "tale of two pandemics," Rehad confronts the harsh reality that, while antiviral drugs are vital, eliminating the accelerating threat to humanity from emerging diseases requires making those drugs available to all, while also tackling the poverty, malnutrition and lack of access to healthcare that are fuelling the rise of dangerous new pathogens - and the clock is ticking.

The film documents the key political issues in recent years in South Africa that have marked the demise of the African National Congress (ANC). These include the Marikana massacre in August 2012, whereby 34 striking miners were gunned down by the ANC government's police force. Rehad Desai documented this historic event in his 2013 film MINERS SHOT DOWN. He refers to the incident once again in his latest film and shows how the ANC is undermining its close connections to the trade unions it set up as a freedom movement under Nelson Mandela, and how students have also turned on the party to protest against tuition fees under the motto #FeesMustFall. The film's compelling footage unmasks the cynical despotism of corrupt president Jacob Zuma, who is chiefly responsible for the ANC's demise and its catastrophic losses at the most recent elections. It also introduces opposition movements that are challenging his now-untenable position.

An unflinching look at the #FeesMustFall student movement that burst onto the South African political landscape in 2015 as a protest over the cost of education. The story is told by four student leaders at Wits University and their Vice Chancellor, Adam Habib, a left-wing, former anti-apartheid student activist. When Habib’s efforts to contain the protest fail, he brings 1000 police on to campus. There are dire consequences for the young leaders. By blending dramatic unfolding action with a multi-protagonist narrative, much of the drama lies in the internal struggles the activists have around the weight of leadership. Threaded through the film is a pulse of anticipation, shared across the generational divide, that somehow these youth have reached breaking point and won’t back down until they achieve the kind of social transformation that previous generations had long given up on.