By JOSHUA GARCIA

Contributing Writer:

Inspiring, insightful and unforgettable are words that can easily describe director Justin Chadwick’s refreshing  new film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.”

Mandela, who has been ill in recent months, died Thursday Dec. 5. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient was 95.

Idris Elba stars as Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president of South Africa. Elba portrays Mandela’s life from the mid-20th century to his rise as president of South Africa in 1994. The movie is indeed a long walk through Mandela’s life not jumping through years at a time for the sake of cutting to the chase, as many other biographies do, but instead leads us through an in-depth view of Mandela’s life as a lawyer to prisoner to president. This film is based on Mandela’s autobiographical book of the same name.

The biographical film also does a great job at developing characters and creating emotional bonds with viewers. One can feel a sense of the struggles the characters are going through. Naomie Harris gives an equally emotional portrayal of Mandela’s wife Winnie Madikizela as she kept her husband’s ideals alive and thriving during his imprisonment and after.

Being filmed in actual South Africa gave the film an extra visual jolt. From the moment the film begins, we are greeted with strong visual and auditory depictions of an untouched Africa to a more urbanized version of it later on. Accompanied with a strong original score by Alex Heffes and a beautiful song by U2 “Ordinary Love” that buttons the film beautifully.

The film makes an impression that lasts and will resound in the minds of anyone who watches it. A strong cast, great visuals and audio have led to an equally amazing movie.

The film is in theaters now. Several Daniel Pearl Magnet High School students attended an advance free

screening of this film in November. The two-hour, 19 minute movie is rated PG-13.