Vivas Bastidas 1

Juanita Vivas Bastidas

HIS 282
Dr. Kehren
May 18, 2016
Apartheids Dissection in Catch a Fire

Catch a Fire is a biographical thriller film released in 2006. Directed by Phillip Noyce,

the film tells the story of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) and other activists who devoted their

life to the fight against Apartheid. The film is set during the politically tumultuous 1980s in the

Northern Coalfields of South Africa. Catch a Fire is a film that successfully captures the

multidimensional nature of the Apartheid era in South Africa. This, because the film covers

crucial issues about this era that other films managed to overlook. For the purpose of this

analysis, this paper will focus on the scene where prisoners sing and dance together after hearing

the second attack at the Secunda synthetic fuel refinery. Three characteristics of South Africa

during Apartheid that Catch a Fire successfully showcases are: the overall transformative nature

of the Apartheid process, Black Africans unity, loyalty, and agency, and White Africans siege

mentality.

Catch a Fire manages to portray the overall transformative nature of the Apartheid

process through Patrick Chamussos life. At the beginning of the film, Patrick is portrayed as an

apolitical South African. For instance, when all of the oil refinery workers are making a line to

enter the Secunda CTL Synthetic Fuel refinery and start celebrating the first terrorist attack

targeted to the plant by singing, Patrick refuses to participate. Pursuing this further, Patricks

apolitical nature is also seen when he orders his mother to stop listening to the radio program that
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supports the ANC. Patrick, during the first part of the film, is seen as a scared individual who

values the little he has in life too much as to compromise it. However, after Patrick is wrongfully

accused of the first terrorist attack on the Secunda CTL synthetic fuel refinery by Nic Vos (Tim

Robbins), his attitude towards life begins a process of transformation.

Nic Vos, without enough proof, decides that Patrick is going to be considered guilty until

proven innocent. Vos main argument is that there is no alibi for Patricks disappearance at the

time when the crime was committed. The audience is later explained that the reason why Patrick

disappears in the middle of that night is because he has another family he wanted to visit before

going back to Precious, his mother, and his daughters. Accordingly, he holds Patrick and his

friends captive on an isolated space where a couple of rooms are found. During their captivity,

Vos constantly tortures them in the hopes to make them confess their crime. Since none of them

do, Vos then kidnaps Patricks wife Precious. During Precious captivity, she is tortured as well

while Patrick is forced to watch. This event shocks Patrick to the point where he decides to

confess a crime he did not commit. Vos realizes that Patricks confession is purely driven by his

anger and fear of watching his wife being tortured and so he lets him go.

Free again, Patrick realizes that something truly is broken with the Apartheid system.

After witnessing the way Vos ordered his wife and friends to be tortured without a valid reason,

he understands that something has to be done. Accordingly, he decides that instead of having his

family get hurt for nothing, he is going to let the pain and suffering mean something and begins

working with the ANC. This, converting him in what Vos initially accused him of being.

Patricks hopes of being able to be an apolitical individual in this political tumultuous era are still

visible when the commander of the ANC chants Are you ready to die? and he is the only one

who does not feel comfortable responding Yes, commander! (Noyce, Catch a Fire) However,
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he overcomes this and accepts whatever assignment is given to him by the new organization he

forms part of. During his participation in the ANC, Patrick is assigned to place the second bomb

in the Secunda CTL Synthetic fuel refinery.

The specific scene that this analysis is focused on follows Patricks successful attack on

the Secunda fuel refinery. The complete scene is divided into three perspectives. One of these,

focusing on the reaction of the older prisoners captive by Vos to the explosion of the second

bomb in Secunda CTL; the second one, focusing on Patrick trying to escape Secunda CTL to

avoid being caught; and the last one, focusing on Patricks friends nephew and his reaction both

to the explosion and to the celebration of the older prisoners. The three different settings in

which the scene takes place all look dark and what stands out through the use of close-ups are the

faces of Patrick and the other prisoners including the young boy. The scene begins and ends with

the prisoners singing in their own language. At first, the older prisoners are singing while still

sitting down. The young kid hears them signing and after a couple of seconds decides to join in

and sing along. As the scene develops, the energy rises up and the prisoners who are able to stand

up do so and dance emotively.

The song the group is singing is a protest song. Translated to English the song says:

When the sun goes down Well meet in the bush With our AK-47s and Bazookas (Noyce,

Catch a Fire). Three main things that are evident in this scene are Black Africans community,

loyalty, and agency. In the first place, this scene showcases the Black African sense of

community when they are all singing the same song together. Basically, in the scene, the group

of prisoners is being able to connect to the whole community of South Africans outside of those

four walls that are tired of the broken system they are all living in through this form of art. Given

that before this scene, the audience has already been introduced to the song when all of the
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Secunda workers are singing it while making a line, it is impossible for one not to understand

that the song means unity to them. The value of community is also seen in the scene through

Noyces decision of filming the young kid and his uncle in the same position signing the song.

The fact that it is the older generation who starts singing and then the younger generation joins in

evokes a sense of culture. Culture being a shared system of attitudes, beliefs, and norms of a

group that is passed down from generation to generation through communication. Likewise, this

scene also showcases Black African loyalty. This, through Noyces decision of the song to be

sung in its original language.

Finally, this scene portrays Black Africans as capable of agency. Agency is the capacity

of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. This is portrayed in this

scene and in general in the whole film through Noyces choice of making Patrick the main

character. In the scene specifically, this is seen because the whole reason why the group of

prisoners is celebrating is the success of the ANC attack against the Secunda fuel refinery plant.

This showcasing that in reality the heroes of South Africa are not only the White Africans who

realized their whiteness was problematic; but also, the Black Africans who are coming together

in groups to fight for what they believe is right. Noyces decision to have the main role played by

Patrick results vital when analyzing this films validity in representing the Apartheid era. This,

because in the many films made about 1980s South Africa, it is rare to find one that includes real

facts such as Black Africans attempt to solve this issue on their own.

Finally, the last characteristic of South Africa during Apartheid that this scene

successfully showcases is the existence of siege mentality. Siege mentality is a feeling of

victimization and defensiveness based on the assumption that others are hostile toward one.

During the Apartheid era, especially during the 1980s, this was the feeling of the majority of
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white Africans. Even though the white Africans had all of the power of South Africa at the time,

they lived under a constant belief that they were the victims of the events that took place. This

characteristic is clearly seen in police officer Nic Vos. Even when he has no proves to accuse

Patrick he is willing to physically torture him, his friends, and his wife in order to get answers

because he constantly feels he is under attack. Pursuing this further, even when he knows that

Patrick has not done the crime, he is willing to mentally torture Patricks wife, Precious (Bonnie

Henna).

All taken into account, it is believed that Catch a Fire is a film that successfully captures

the multidimensional nature of the Apartheid era in South Africa. This, because the film

represents correctly some of the most important characteristics inherent to 1980s South Africa.

For instance, the scene where Vos prisoners sing and dance together after hearing the second

attack at the Secunda synthetic fuel refinery showcases three of the most vital characteristics at

the time. Firstly, it describes the overall transformative nature of the Apartheid process through

the fact that it is Patrick, a former apolitical individual, the one putting the bomb in the Secunda

plant. Pursuing this further, through this same scene, Black Africans values of community,

loyalty, and agency are emphasized. Finally, the fact that the setting of this scene is a prison

where Black Africans are being held against their will for unjustifiable reasons evidences White

Africans siege mentality.

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Works Cited

Catch a Fire. Dir. Phillip Noyce. Perfs. Derek Luke, Tim Robbins, and Bonnie Henna. Focus

Features, 2006. DVD.