London Recruits
Synopsis
In exile, ANC leader Oliver Tambo has a plan to re-organise a new underground. That will take time. Right now, he needs to get a message of hope to the oppressed millions inside South Africa.
Using apartheid’s prejudices against itself, he recruits white sympathisers from London to run underground missions into the heart of the racist state. He tasks Ronnie Kasrils, a charismatic young ANC fighter, with leading the London operation.
Ronnie’s recruits smuggle leaflets into the country to put in the mail. Through Joyce, a black journalist and ANC activist, we see leaflets reach individuals, but attempts to inspire a wider audience result in torture and imprisonment. No message of hope to millions.
In response, a secret propaganda weapon is invented – the leaflet bucket bomb. Despite dangers, Sean, Steve, Kathy and other young Londoners, volunteer to deploy them in South Africa. Spectacular explosions. Thousands of leaflets. No one is hurt and the message gets through. Success. Under pressure, Ronnie selects Sean for another mission. It’s a trap. Sean is now on death row.
Eye-witness testimony. Archive. Reconstruction.
Details
- Year
- 2022
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 100 min
- Format
- 4k, 2k
- Director
-
Gordon Main
- Producer
- Gordon Main, Colin Charles, James Barratt, Jacintha de Nobrega, Felix Gill
- Co-Producer
- Jacintha de Nobrega
- Executive Producer
- Robyn Slovo, Geoff Arbourne
- Editor
- Collin Games, Justine Wright
- Screenwriter
- Gordon Main
- Director of Photography
- Gordon Main, Richard Lynch
- Production Designer
- Keith Maxwell, Tertius Swanepoel. Hamish Macleod
- Sound
- Nicholas Davies
- Composer
- Sion Trefor
- Principal cast
- Ronnie Kasrils, Sean Hosey, Steve Marsling, Joyce Sikkikane, Tumelo Nkwanca, Sechaba Rampele, Tom Evans, Mitchell Baggott, Alex Gwyther, Sam Medupe,
- Costume design
- Caroline Llewellyn, Zimasa Ndamase
- Hair Make up
- Jess Clarke
Genre
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Barefoot Rascals Ltd
PorterswellRoch
Haverfordwest
Pembrokeshire SA62 6JX
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Folk to Folk
Director: Saoirse Crean
Year: 2026
Led by renowned vocal coach Jennifer John, Folk to Folk follows a group of women in Liverpool who use traditional folk songs to build unexpected connections across cultures. As they learn and sing in Gaelic, Romansh, Boro and other languages, the sessions uncover shared themes that unite us. The songs rise like ghosts from the past, stirring memories, laughter and tears, and opening a safe space for the women to reflect together. “This project proves that music is a universal language. It allows us to feel, to be emotional, and when we do that together… that’s where the power lies” - Jennifer John
The Local
Director: Kim Hopkins
Year:
In an inner-city pub in Northern England, the lives of its regulars unfold through politics, love, loss and song, as a community holds on with quiet dignity in a world growing more divided and uncertain.
Lost Souls Swimming in A Fish Bowl
Director: Aneek Chaudhuri
Year: 2026
Lost Souls, Swimming in a Fish Bowl is a silent documentary about the invisible territories of depression, isolation, memory, and the fragile act of continuing to live. There are people who move through the world every day while feeling as though they exist behind glass. They work, walk, eat, sleep, smile, and disappear into crowds—yet remain suspended within an interior world that no one else can enter. The film observes these fractured states without explanation, diagnosis, or spoken testimony. Instead, silence becomes the language of the film. Through faces, bodies, empty rooms, urban landscapes, found footage, archival fragments, photographs, gestures, objects, and moments of stillness, Lost Souls, Swimming in a Fish Bowl enters the psychological geography of people who feel trapped inside themselves. The fish bowl becomes both metaphor and physical space: transparent enough to see the world outside, yet impossible to escape.