The rise and fall of South African paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, who shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, is the subject of a new documentary by Vaughan Sivell, who believes the story serves as a parable for the nation post-apartheid.
The filmmaker said the four-part documentary was an attempt to understand what went wrong with the athlete, who was found guilty of culpable homicide.
"There was a concern that I did not have really anything new to say because it has been in news so much already. But during the initial research, it struck me that he was born just a few years after the birth of the rainbow nation. The country and the man had so much in common as in so little had been expected of them but they confounded everyone by what they achieved.
"But if you fast forward in time, the trial basically shows how the dream of the nation and Oscar, both came crashing down in a way that highlighted the poverty, crime and inequalities of the country," Sivell told PTI in a telephonic interview from London.
A documentary filmmaker digging around is not the most welcome thing but Sivell said he ensured that their interpretation did justice to both Reeva's memory and Oscar's life.
"We ensured that this wasn't a frivolous piece of entertainment and really was something that should make people think about what they feel about the whole case, he said.
Three years of research went into making the series, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on September 6.
Sivell said gaining the trust of the people associated with the case was important.
"One of the judges described it as a tragedy of Shakespearean proportion. As a filmmaker, you try to find the truth in a story, which in this case happens to be a real life tragedy."
The director said he understands that even though Oscar and his family's life has changed detrimentally forever, Reeva's family lost her and there is nothing bigger than that.
Sivell said to remain impartial, he relied on a team and they discussed every minute of the trial. The director believes what Oscar, before the scandal, managed to do was something great.
He managed to change the perception on disability across the globe, even though lot many people would find it hard to reconcile the positive with what followed.
"And we achieved what we set out to do - to make a film about what was proven and what was not proven. What the audiences make of this is that it is a tragedy. It is the story of a human condition, a story of what makes a man whole or not, about just the legal process and ultimately whether a man's positive legacy can be completely wiped away in a moment or whether there is an Oscar to look back upon that had a positive effect on the world even though that has been washed away in many people's mind.
Sivell said Oscar's family was initially reluctant and did not want to get involved but they convinced that the approach would be honest without any fabrication.
"We offered the same chance to Reeva's family but they did not get involved. We, however, have tried to show them as they deserve to be shown, with enormous amount of sympathy and the fact that they behaved with such dignity during the trial.
Sivell said there was no resistance from Reeva's family.
They haven't tried to stop us from making the film, they just did not want to be included in the film. Nobody really wants to talk about these things and why would they? In many cases, I was surprised that they did. With Oscar's family, very specifically, there were things that they knew the world believed about him that were not true. So just having the chance to put it straight was a huge relief for them.
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