Untold grief for Winnie

Producers of Winnie Mandela: The Untold Story should accept that the film is jinxed.

Just as producers were hoping for a controversy-free lead-up to its March 7 release (filming began as long ago as April 2010) at Ster Kinekor cinemas, its subject has again distanced herself from it.

In a statement yesterday, Madikizela-Mandela dismissed speculation that she had reservations about the lead cast of Jennifer Hudson (Winnie) and Terence Howard (Nelson Mandela).

However, despite trying to allow "the creative process to occur organically", she suggests nobody knows her version of events better than she does.

"Unlike Long Walk To Freedom," said Madikizela-Mandela, "this film is based on an UNAUTHORISED biography whose producers did not deem it fit to consult me or my family. My family and I are therefore not associated with this production".

The Darrell Roodt-directed biopic is based on Marie du Preez Bezdrob's biography Winnie Mandela: A Life, which covers her development from a privileged child to dedicated social worker, wife, mother and most famously her activism. The book also investigates the allegations of kidnapping and murder, and fraud charges against her, and even her divorce from Madiba. 

An incomplete version of the film made its world premiere at the 2011 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, and was immediately slated by international press.

Countless changes were made to the film since then; among them T.D. Jakes came on board to help develop a marketing and distribution strategy for it.

Producers are hosting a pre-screening of the film at Ster Kinekor Nouveau at Rosebank Mall tonight [Wednesday].

Yesterday [Tuesday] co-producer Andre Pieterse would not comment on whether Madikizela-Mandela's comment would cast doubt on the film's credibility and what the unfavourable reviews and delays would do to its box-office performance, promising to speak post the pre-screening.

Roodt could not be reached yesterday but he previously told The Times the film should rather "focus on the performances of both [Hudson] and [Howard], since both stars could well earn [Oscar nominations]. He added that selecting the final score and adding the title song, which was composed by legend Diane Warren and performed by Hudson, was "time-consuming and daunting, but well worth the challenge".

Madikizela-Mandela told CNN in 2011: "I have absolutely nothing against Jennifer, but I have everything against the movie itself... I am still alive, and I think that it is a total disrespect to come to South Africa, make a movie about my struggle, and call that a movie some translation of a romantic life of Winnie Mandela".

International reviews:

• NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: "Distant and obvious, it takes a story with many angles and reduces its edges, becoming a glorified TV movie."
• THE GUARDIAN, UK: "This syrupy biography of the former wife of Nelson Mandela seeks to sugar-coat South Africa's complex history."
• WASHINGTON POST: "It’s slight and episodic, with a weirdly scrupulous ambivalence about its subject, whom it seems torn between loving and loathing."
• NEW YORK TIMES: "It wants to do the impossible and tell its subject’s story while de-emphasizing the negative to sustain inspirational momentum."
• USA TODAY: "The film that bears her name (** out of four; rated) seems unsure just how much to include of Winnie Mandela's controversial adult life and how heavily to focus on her famous husband."