Prisoners play soccer in docudrama

'Game' features 'Tsotsi' star Chweneyagae

By CHRISTELLE DE JAGER

JOHANNESBURG -- For the political prisoners jailed on the infamous Robben Island off the coast of apartheid South Africa during the 1960s and 70s, playing soccer -- often on the sly using rolled-up rags for balls -- became a tool for survival.

Now the experiences of the former soccer-playing activists on the island, where Nelson Mandela was also held, is to be made into a film produced by Videovision Entertainment's Anant Singh, featuring Presley Chweneyagae, star of the Oscar-winning "Tsotsi."

The docudrama, "More Than Just A Game," directed by Junaid Ahmed ("Lucky") is told through the experiences of five former prisoners, who were given permission in 1965 to start their own soccer association.

Former prisoner Anthony Suze, who attended the launch of the film in Cape Town last week along with the other former prisoners featured in the film, said, "For us, playing soccer on Robben Island was just another way of survival and finding sanity in a situation intended to dehumanize us."