A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

This is a trans-formative film that touches deep and complex emotions . The visceral response of anger, hatred and revenge that surge from a feeling of being wronged are intensely powerful. This film attempts ,and succeeds in offering a mechanism and process that has the power to divert the impulse to kill to strike back to be vengeful, to perpetuate a cycle of violence into a outcome more difficult but ultimately cathartic and positive . It is a searing and haunting journey and one we can all learn from. restorative justice is a fragile process- it requires truth and responsibility and a belief that we share common human decency and dignity. It is not available to all; but if this base notion of justice was incorporated into our vindictive criminal justice system we would see dramatic and positive changes .

This is an exceptionally well-done and thoughtful documentary on the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa and the rather different "war crimes" tribunel approach they took in South Africa. While I was disappointed that they didn't touch on black-on-black attacks (anyone who's ever seen the end result of "the necklace"-even on film-won't ever forget), it was a very good and even-handed presentation. I could not write a comment here without getting this off my chest, though: POSSIBLE SPOILER- In my opinion, there isn't any difference materially between Eric Taylor-white SA police officer who killed a black SA man unlawfully-and Robert McBride-black SA who admits to planting a bomb outside a club that killed three women. That they are treated quite differently by the tribunal in their respective amnesty applications is therefore disturbing, although the reasons are obvious and I do not think the tribunal played favorites in any way. Most Recommended.

This documentary tells four true stories of apartheid in South Africa. As one of the people in the film points out, there is a Kafkaesque atmosphere about people confessing their atrocities in order to seek amnesty.The point of both the hearings in the film and of the film itself is to be able to heal by facing the truth. Only in facing the past can we prevent ourselves from repeating it. We must remember the true horrors that humans can make for other humans. That is the only sane way of sustaining a better world that can emerge from the chaos.Not an easy film to watch, there are times when anguish flies off the screen into the viewer. But purgation comes from witnessing truth, accepting it, and guarding against the evil within us that is capable of such horror. This is a human story that will alter your perspective on life.

This is an impressive documentary - there can be no argument about that. The question is whether its because the subject of the documentary (the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission) is enough to make you sit back and rethink every thought you have ever had on pain, suffering and the vengefulness that invariable goes with it. Or perhaps it is the film makers' extraordinary ability to draw from the people involved an honesty and openness which is as impressive as it is devastating to watch.You can not possibly watch this documentary without being changed by it and hopefully no opportunity will ever arise to make a documentary like this one again, so it is a must see.This is definitely the best documentary I have ever seen. Enough said.