Catch a Fire is an intelligent, fact-based apartheid thriller that tells the story of Patrick Chamusso (sympathetically played by Derek Luke), a South African wrongly accused, in 1980, of sabotaging the oil refinery where he worked. After both he and his wife are tortured by agents of the Boer government (led by a conflicted security chief played by Tim Robbins), Chamusso becomes a radicalised guerilla for the MK, or military wing, of the African National Congress. Filmed on the actual locations where its events took place, Catch a Fire bristles with urgent authenticity, its political cat-and-mouse game capably handled by director Philip Noyce, who applies the sensitivity of his acclaimed films Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American with the thriller expertise established in mainstream hits like Dead Calm and Patriot Games. The film's third-act shift toward conventional sabotage-and-manhunt plotting may seem jarring, but you can hardly blame Noyce and screenwriter Shawn Slovo (whose father led the MK when Chamusso joined) for sticking to the facts in a politically charged story handled with admirable humanity and compassion. --Jeff Shannon

Based on a true story, this South-African set film starring Tim Robbins is a thoughtfully made and thought-provoking look at apartheid, and the human cost. Tim Robbins is well cast and plays with a quiet authority, but the real stars are the other actors, unknown to me but worthy of greater attention. This film shows what can happen in a society under threat when fear, paranoia and bad intelligence get the upper hand (a similar combination and outcome to that portrayed in 'Rendition') and how, at the end of the chain, it is always the innocent who suffer. This film is well worth seeing.

How did apartheid ever last for as long as it did? Us humans have over history been pretty bad to each other haven't we? This film is a great story of triumph over adversity, hard viewing, at times ,sad but also uplifting. Good acting and overall worth watching.