In 1986, he began to quietly reach out to the South African government to see if there was interest in negotiating an end to apartheid.įour years later, on February 11, 1990, the most famous political prisoner in the world was released. Mandela was committed to achieving freedom for all South Africans, not just for himself. After prisoners found ways to read blackened content, censors began cutting out large portions of letters, reducing them to shreds. Letters were heavily censored, with words blacked out if they were not strictly personal. They talked on phones as guards listened to every word. Glass walls separated prisoners from visitors. His two young daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, had to wait until the age of 16 to see him. It would be 21 years before he could hold his wife, Winnie Mandela, again. He was denied permission to attend the funeral of his mother, who passed away in 1968, and one of his sons, who died in a car accident in 1969. When Mandela arrived on Robben Island, he was permitted one letter and one 30‐minute visit every six months. Some prisoners were assaulted and tortured by guards.Ĭontact with the outside world was almost completely severed. Condemned to hard labour, Mandela and his fellow activists spent more than a decade breaking rocks in a lime quarry. The plot's on the thin side, so Rodriguez employs lots of gimmickry to fill the gaps, like explosions, kids turning into giant bugs and the aforementioned booger monster.Political prisoners faced the worst conditions of all. ![]() When the rock ends up in the hands of Toby's neighbour, Nose Noseworthy, chaos and a giant booger ensue after an upset in his dad's laboratory. Black wants his device in every house and has pitted Mr and Mrs Thompson (Leslie Mann) against each other in a race to develop an upgrade that will quash the competition. Toby's workaholic parents are employed by Carbon Black and spend most of their lives attached to the high-tech all-purpose Black Box device made by their company. Toby "Toe" Thompson is regularly bullied by Carbon Black's son, Cole, and daughter, Helvetica, (Cole and Helvetica Black, get it? Probably not if you're six or seven.) who uses the wishing stone to conjure some tiny aliens who clean up his room but cause havoc when they arrive in the school science lab via his backpack. As always, several of Rodriguez's progeny also feature. Macy as germaphobic inventor Dr Noseworthy and Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer as Mr Thompson, a workaholic employee of James Spader's devious Carbon Black. Some of America's best-known actors are among the cast, including William H. Soon, everyone wants a piece of the action, from the greedy head of the Black Box technology corporation (played with sleazy aplomb by James Spader) to the kid who wants a castle with a moat full of crocodiles. The residents of Black Falls have their lives changed in different and dramatic ways when the magic rainbow-coloured stone lands in their hands. Rather it is a collection of scenes involving interconnected characters and their experiences with a colourful wishing stone. Shorts is not, as the title implies, a collection of self-contained short films or stories. Thankfully, there's just enough humour, action and high jinks in Shorts to amuse the kids and adults, even when they are a bit confused about the out-of-sequence events. Non-linear story-telling can be a risky at the best of times, especially so when children are the target audience.
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