Endgame

South Africa, 1985. While the country is under siege, sanctions are biting, Mandela’s imprisonment is an international cause célèbre, and the ANC guerrilla terrorist attacks are escalating. Every day, the country is more ungovernable as it plunges toward the apocalypse of a race war. In saner moments, everyone knows that the Apartheid regime is doomed, but, will the transition to democracy be peaceful or bloody?

Working for State Preisdent P.W. Botha as a somewhat Machiavellian Head of Intelligence, Dr. Neil Barnard opens furtive talks with the imprisoned Nelson Mandela. But, lesser known are the secret talks that take place in the unlikely setting of a rural English manor house, arranged by a British businessman and sponsored by a mining company. Both sides have everything to win or to lose, including their own lives. The stakes are immense, the secrecy imperative. Botha learns of the UK talks and, if the demise of Apartheid is inevitable, he intends to control the endgame by employing the tactics of divide-and-rule. Against all odds, through volatile discussion, intrigue and breakthroughs, the unimaginable is achieved – a precious arena of frail trust between the two warring parties.