Troublemaker (aka Untitled Mandela Project)
Synopsis
Narrated by Mandela himself, one of history’s extraordinary enduring figures, his account reveals previously unheard, personal and touching testimony, teamed with emotional conflict. Travelling through time back to his beginnings as a rebellious young man in South Africa; his rebirth as a lawyer; 27 years imprisonment on Robben Island and finally to his release and free and fair elections and victory against Apartheid rule.
The interviews and narration are the last oral and video account by the great man before his death. The film was edited by Gregers Salls (SENNA) and officially supported by the Mandela Foundation, and Mandela’s own family.
Details
- Year
- 2019
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 99 min
- Format
- DCP (Arri D21 HDCam SR)
- Director
-
Kemal Akhtar, Kweku Mandela 1st Feature
- Producer
- Kemal Akhtar, Kweku Mandela
- Co-Producer
- Victoria Gregory
- Executive Producer
- James Erskine, Phil Hunt, Jens Meurer, Compton Ross, Deepak Sikka, Colin Vaines, David Westhead
- Editor
- Gregers Salls
- Screenwriter
- Kemal Akhtar
- Director of Photography
- Charles C. Meyer
- Sound
- Richard Lewis
- Composer
- Andrea Boccadoro
- Principal cast
- Nelson Mandela
- Archive Researcher
- Jo Stones
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
UK, South Africa co-prodcution
A 25-7 Films (UK), Out of Africa Entertainment (ZA), New Black Films (UK), Wilton Pictures (UK) production in association with Head Gear Films (UK), Metrol Technology (UK)
25-7 Films
81 Eccleston SquareLondon
SW1V 1PP
New Black Films Limited
5 Denmark StreetLondon
WC2H 8LP
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.