Water rolls on to the jagged shore of Robben Island with Table Mountain the backdrop across the channel. Former president Kgalema Motlanthe speaks over the images. “As individuals we were like rivulets, which decant into the main stream. And it’s the mainstream which changes society. Not individuals. When you look at the peak of a mountain and you admire it and its loftiness, it is because it is standing on many bedrocks.”

The content of Lebogang Rasethaba’s new documentary Prisoner 467/64: The Untold Legacy of Andrew Mlangeni focuses on the struggle for an equal, democratic society, using quality source material and high profile interviews to recount key events and periods. It also aims to layer the post-Apartheid narrative of the past that idolises certain characters and ignore others.

The 52-minute documentary, which screens for the first time in South Africa on Sunday, follows the story of ANC stalwart Mlangeni, one of the accused in the Rivonia Treason Trial who spent 26 years on Robben Island in the cell next to Nelson Mandela before serving in Parliament in the first democratic government. Occasionally, Mlangeni is mentioned these days as head of the ANC’s integrity committee or as a veteran commenting on current issues.

“How do you tell the story that, A, should have been told, and B, hasn’t been told?” asks 31-year-old Rasethaba, drinking a beer in Johannesburg’s Kitcheners, wearing orange Nike sneakers, blue shorts, a grey Nike T-shirt and bucket hat. The film was motivated by the need to layer the understanding of history. Working on the project for about two years, Rasethaba understood that everyone in the movement played a role. “Not to take anything away from Mandela but you start to ask, could that have been anyone?”

Rasethaba’s recent documentary Future Sounds of Mzansi, created in collaberation with the popular musician Nthato Mokgata, known as Spoek Mathambo, offered an exciting look at South Africa’s electronic music scene and enjoyed wide success. He is baffled at why no one seems to care about Prisoner 467/64. It was not selected for local screenings at the Encounters Film Festival or the Durban International Film Festival. Partly, he thinks it might be that people want struggle films continuing to iconise Mandela (Rasethaba fought against attempts to call the documentary In the Shadow of Mandela) and they resist anything that questions his legacy.

Yet Prisoner 467/64 hardly questions the legacy of Madiba, except in his omission. It ignores the common impulse to talk first, foremost and only about one man in a united and complex struggle. Instead, it looks at Mlangeni’s role, featuring historical photographs that almost look 3D, footage from key locations, a carefully chosen soundtrack, and interviews with Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg, George Bizos, President Jacob Zuma, Mlangeni and his family.

In a series of intimate scenes, Mlangeni is shown shaving, fixing his tie over a crisp white shirt and suspenders, and driving to Mandela’s Houghton home after the former president’s death in 2013. “You know, I have never been in the forefront of the ANC. I have always been a backroom boy,” recalls Mlangeni.

During the Rivonia Trial, Mlangeni says he was ready to die, but hoped his death would advance the struggle. He went to prison for 26 years. “You sometimes start to wonder whether taking part in the struggle for freedom was the correct decision,” he reflects, sitting in his home. “You go over all those things. Did I do the right thing? All those things come into your mind.”

“I, together with Walter Sisulu, Ray Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg, we spent 20 and 26 years of our lives on Robben Island to serve a nation, to serve a people of South Africa. That was the spirit amongst all of us, including that of Madiba. We did not want to serve ourselves first.”

At a memorial service for Mandela in 2013, former President Thabo Mbeki said we need to look at the generation of struggle leaders, learn from all of them, and not only emphasise Madiba’s acts of reconciliation. “I’m saying, while we are celebrating the life of Mandela and all the others and paying tribute, there were people who made enormous sacrifices in their lives. This is a generation that bequeathed to us many values. I think principal among these values that they bequeathed the people is to service the people, not to serve themselves,” he told the Calvary Church in Midrand.

Rasethaba argues that only focusing on Mandela makes his values seem unattainable. “That’s honing in on someone and something at the expense of society. People become immobilised by that… What I can do is make films that force people to think about things differently. People need to take lessons and excel in individual roles.”

“It’s either like do something or shut up,” he says of people who continually complain but don’t do anything to improve the situation. “We’re trying to open up people’s minds into the comeplexity and different minds in the struggle… Once a film has been made about something it assumes a new kind of importance.”

Prisoner 467/64 doesn’t touch on the current state of the country or the ANC and Rasethaba said it was a strange position to be in. The ANC and Zuma, who features in the documentary, lack credibility, but the film is rooted in the credibility of the movement. Rasethaba’s aim is to get his young audience to engage with a layered view of history to help interpret the present and future. “If I made a film about the ANC now I’m sure people would give a f**k,” he says, likely right, given the punditry on the party’s problems and future.

While many of the events featured in the film are well known, Mlangeni’s role is largely unchronicled. When he saw the film for the first time, even his perception seemed to change, asking, “Who’s that guy you made a film about?”

Prisoner 467/64: The Untold Legacy of Andrew Mlangeni screens for the first time in South Africa on Sunday in Rosebank’s Cinema Nouveau. DM

Photo: A movie poster for Prisoner 467/64: The Untold Legacy of Andrew Mlangeni