Film
Behind the Rainbow
D: Jihan El-Tahri, Documentary, ZA/F/ET 2008, 124 min
o. v. English, subt. English
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are the most prominent figures in the ANC. In exile they were brothers in arms, and during Mandela’s presidency they worked together to build an antiracist state. Today they are bitter enemies. Jihan El-Tahri examines the ANC’s transition from liberation movement to governing party and questions the effect of power on the dream of equality.
Jihan El-Tahri is an Egyptian-French producer and award winning documentary filmmaker. She began her career as a journalist, and from 1984 to 1990 she was a correspondent for a number of news outlets, including Reuters, the Washington Post, and the Sunday Times. Her film “The House of Saud” was nominated for an Emmy in 2005. In “Behind the Rainbow” (2008) she examined the development of the ANC in South Africa after apartheid. El-Tahri has written two books: “The Nine Lives of Yasser Arafat” and “Israel and the Arabs: the 50 Years War.”