Doccie delves into Kebble conundrum

Published Oct 24, 2014

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204 GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER

DIRECTOR: Warren Batchelor

CAST: Roger Kebble, Guy Kebble, Mikey Schultz, David McKay

CLASSIFICATION: 16LVND

RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes

RATING: ***

 

INFORMATION-heavy, this feature documentary is nonetheless a fascinating reminder that when you wonder what is really happening behind a news story, you need to follow the money.

It meticulously delves into the minutia of detail behind the death of Brett Kebble, with the title referencing section 204 of the Criminal Procedures Act, under which the men who killed the mining magnate were given indemnity against prosecution in exchange for testifying.

Going back to the early 1990s and then ending with a “where are they now” round up of the main characters, the film unpacks what different people think happened, and how everyone fits together.

 While it centres very much on the events leading up to the killing and the deed itself, the narration and interviews eventually lead you somewhere else, pointing to a bigger picture of corruption and manipulation of the justice system.

Divided into chapters such as “The Fall of the Empire” or “The Hit List” the documentary features a mix of talking heads interviews and archived footage with re-enactments of drug sales and the actual killing by Mikey Schultz, Nigel McGurk and Faizel “Kappie” Smith.

The TV footage is grainy since it has been blown up to full size, but it does add a touch of old-school reality and some of the interviews are subtitled, even though everyone is speaking English.

Glen Agliotti stresses the Jackie Selebi link while the man himself protests his innocence and everyone’s favourite cop, Piet Byleveld, and even Lolly Jackson put in an appearance.

It is fascinating how Roger and Guy Kebble view Brett’s business in a very different way to business reporter David McKay who keeps on drawing your attention back to the missing money.

There is a lot of talking and a heavy, serious narrative thread running through the film – if you blink for a second you lose the plot, which is linear and dense.

Any narrative tension created in this story is thanks to the manipulative score, not the immediacy of the story. The re-enactments are in a way tedious since they portray a level of ineptitude on the part of the killers that is laughable if someone hadn’t actually ended up dead for real.

Just like Rehad Desai’s Miners Shot Down this documentary allows you to step back and look at the bigger picture, but there seems to be huge chunks of dialogue missing since some of the narrator’s conclusions – like decrying the rot in SARS – come out of left field. The subject matter is important, but the presentation is so densely packed with just so much to process that it would take many viewings to get it straight in your head. But, visually it is like an old-fashioned TV news special.

If you liked Crumbs – Toppling the Bread Cartel or National Diploma, you will like this.

 

 

Of cash trails, dirty deals and plots

DIRECTOR Warren Batchelor (pictured) initially started interviewing Nigel McGurk, Mikey Schultz and Faizel “Kappie” Smith because he wanted to make a feature film.

But, the story turned out to be bigger than just the killing of Brett Kebble and he ended up making a documentary.

Trying to piece together the bigger picture sent the now 48-year-old down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, Joburg bouncers and dirty business

deals, but the key was always to follow the money.

“The documentary was initially planned to be a small one, based on the three guys, because the story is so bizarre that people would just think a

film is fiction.

“So, we wanted to put the story out there to lay the foundation for a feature film,” Batchelor said.

He doesn’t discount eventually making that feature, but that’s not what his next project will be.

His background is actually years of working on large-scale television productions like the opening and closing ceremonies

of sports tournaments and extravaganzas like Miss South Africa, but now that the film bug has bitten, he is a changed man.

Batchelor has worked on the 204: Getting Away with Murder project for the past four-and-a-half years, and shot about seven terabytes of footage: “The interviewees dictated the narrative, and that changed over the years into the monster you see today.”

The question of “where is the money?” remained the biggest focus for Batchelor throughout the interviews, but the documentary raises other questions as well.

He eventually scored Glen Agliotti and Jackie Selebi interviews by pointing out that the documentary would go ahead without their input, which

would only be their own fault.

Persuading Selebi in particular was quite the coup: “That was done just after he was convicted, just before his appeal. He was convinced that he would get off,” Batchelor remembers.

The Joburg resident feels that the film should be viewed by the South African public at large: “It’s cinematically shot and runs like a film, but it’s a documentary feature.

“If I want this film to achieve anything it is to spark debate and make people question authority and take a real hard look at our justice and political systems.

“Were they correct in the decisions they took? Were the victims consulted when they gave out these 204 indemnities?

“This is aimed at anybody who is interested in being informed about what’s going on.”

He realises there is a lot of information to get through and said the biggest challenge was balancing that with the visual story. “I hesitate to use the word entertaining, because it’s not, it’s not easy to watch. But, it is important. If I can get the information across simply so that most people would understand…

“That way people can make up their own minds,” he says.

“What I do, as the filmmaker, I do not take a stance. I allow all the people involved to tell their own version of events and it’s up to the audience to decide.”

Still, journalistic evenhandedness aside, Batchelor firmly believes the whole idea of indemnifying the killers was done just to nail Selebi. And the big question he asks is whether the justice system is really accountable to the community it is meant to serve.

As for the controversy about the actual presentation in terms of the re-enactments of the death of Kebble, he doesn’t believe he

is sensationalising the event or glorifying anyone and welcomes comment from anyone who has actually seen the film.

“No one walks away a winner. It’s the truth as seen through their eyes,” he insists.

Already he is emboldened by the responses he has seen at the few film previews this week: “When people leave the cinema they’re already debating and for me that’s the most important thing.”

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