In February 1990, Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster prison after 27 years of incarceration. He is greeted by his wife Winnie and, as they step out of the prison grounds hand in hand, they are confronted by a cheering crowd and the world’s media rejoicing in the fairytale ending of a celebrated couple re-united after decades of separation. Yet how do husband and wife deal with picking up the pieces?

The film flashes back to when Winnie first meets Nelson, revisiting the life of the couple and the critical events that led to Winnie having to fend for herself as Nelson is forced underground, then later arrested, imprisoned and brought before the notorious Rivonia Trial. The film focuses on the desperate times Winnie Mandela went through as the state turns its focus on her. Yet the more the apartheid state tries to harass and terrify, the greater Winnie’s determination not to be ground down. But at what cost?

Through a riveting interlacing of scenes from her tortuous past, this dark, realistic film shows how Winnie resisted everything that was thrown at her. It’s a gripping story that balances extraordinary displays of courage with times of turmoil: the lonely days and nights of banishment, the agony of being separated from her daughters, the violence around her, and her unfaithfulness. The dramatic crescendo blurs into the madness of the last days of apartheid as it becomes clear that Winnie has evolved from innocent country girl to politicised fighter against apartheid, from an adoring and loving wife to a firebrand revolutionary with dark secrets.

Michael Samuels (The Falklands Play, The Curse of Steptoe, Caught in a Trap) writes and directs this powerful film, where Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, The Secret Life Of Bees, Dirty Pretty Things) produces one of the performances of her life as Winnie Mandela, alongside David Harewood (Blood Diamond, Separate Lies) as Nelson Mandela and David Morrissey (The Deal, Blackpool, Born Romantic, Basic Instinct 2), a terrifyingly convincing Major Swanepoel.