Star for Amy Biehl movie
Philippa Garson
22 April 2003
Yet another chapter of South Africa's past is to be re-enacted on the big screen, with the making of a movie about Amy Biehl, the American Fulbright scholar who was tragically killed in the Cape Flats township of Guguletu in 1993.
The film is likely to attract international attention, with Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon set to play Biehl.
Biehl, only 26 at the time of her death, was a vibrant young activist who was killed because she was white - and in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was based at the University of the Western Cape and was studying gender rights in the context of South Africa's transition to democracy.
Biehl, who was dropping off black friends in Guguletu on 25 August 1993, was stoned and stabbed to death by youths, some of whom were returning from a Pan Africanist Student’s Organisation (Paso) meeting where militant slogans such as "One settler, one bullet" were chanted.
Although the Pan Africanist
Congress slated the murder, distancing itself from Paso and charging the killers with "wrongfully target[ing] and kill[ing] Amy Biehl", the four youths charged with Biehl's murder were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconcilation Commission (TRC).
Biehl's family, who have visited the country several times in the wake of her death, pardoned the killers. They also set up The Amy Biehl Foundation, which runs several skills development and job creation projects aimed at steering young people away from violence.
Witherspoon, who attended the same university as Biehl - Stanford University - knew Biehl's story and has been committed to making the film for some time. Anant Singh, who is producing the film, confirmed that Witherspoon would be playing the role when shooting begins.
It is likely to be a while before this happens, however. According to Singh, the script is being drafted for a fourth time by a new Hollywood
scriptwriter.
Quoted in the Sunday Times newspaper, Singh said that since Witherspoon’s casting for the film had been talked about two-and-a-half years ago, she had grown into a much bigger star. She was nominated for a Golden Globe best actress award for Legally Blonde which, together with her other most recent film, Sweet Home Alabama, was a box-office hit. According to Singh, she is now worth around $15-million.
Her manager recently confirmed that Witherspoon, married to actor Ryan Phillippe and pregnant with her second child, is still committed to playing the role.
A documentary attempting to give political context to the murder of Biehl, Inside the Struggle: The Amy Biehl Story, was made in 1994. Biehl's case also featured, along with interviews of her family, in the award-winning documentary on the TRC hearings, Long Night's Journey into Day, made in 2000.
Samuel L
Jackson and Juliette Binoche are currently in Cape Town for the filming of a $15-million screen adaptation of Antjie Krog's multiple award-winning Country of My Skull, a heart-rending account of South Africa's attempt to put its past to rest at the TRC hearings.
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