Academy Awards nominee: Invictus

The second of two post-apartheid films nominated for Oscars this year - the other being District 9 - Invictus tells the story of how President Nelson Mandela, certain that he could unite his country through the universal language of sport, inspired the South African rugby team to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Morgan Freeman stars as Mandela and Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar, captain of the South African team. The growing bond between the two men - unthinkable during the long years of apartheid - is at the heart of Clint Eastwood's film.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
A.O. Scott, the New York Times: "That the sport is as alien to most Americans as it is to black South Africans presents its challenges, but by the end you might care about rugby more than you thought you would, even if it remains harder to understand than politics."

Xan Brooks, the Guardian: "The trouble with Invictus is that it is more monument than motion picture: handsome, reverent and heavy. How curious that this cautious, constrained affair was recently handed the Freedom of Expression award by the National Board of Review. Freedom of expression? Really? Judged in terms of creativity, spectacle and drama, Invictus might as well be stuck on Robben Island."
 
Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times: "Instead of a thriller, war movie or western, the director has turned out a stirring drama about South African leader Nelson Mandela, blending entertainment, social message and history lesson in a way that recalls such decades-old films as The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emile Zola and Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet. The more things change, the more they remain the same."
 
Invictus is released in the UK on February 5. ·