Nelson Mandela. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. By Okla Jones ·Updated February 11, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

When most filmmakers approach a figure as towering as Nelson Mandela, the natural instinct is often to add to whatever myths already exist. In Troublemaker, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Antoine Fuqua does something more intimate; he lets Mandela speak for himself.

Drawn from more than 70 hours of audio recordings Mandela made while writing Long Walk to Freedom, the documentary reconstructs the anti-apartheid struggle through the leader’s own reflections. The title comes from Mandela’s birth name, Rolihlahla (a Xhosa word that translates to “troublemaker”), a fitting descriptor for a young man who would challenge one of the most brutal political systems of the 20th century. Fuqua, working alongside anti-apartheid activist and former Robben Island prisoner Mac Maharaj, builds the film from these recovered interviews, Maharaj’s testimony, archival footage and striking animation by South African artist Thabang Lehobye.

Troublemaker traces Mandela’s evolution from his youth in the Thembu royal court, to his political awakening in Johannesburg, to his decision to engage in armed resistance in the 1960s, and finally to the statesman who would guide South Africa through its first democratic elections. Fuqua is particularly interested in the years that shaped him, including the 27 spent on Robben Island, a period with little visual documentation.

As nationalist movements gain traction in various parts of the world, this documentary revisits a struggle that succeeded through action and political strategy. It also complicates Mandela’s image, presenting as a global symbol of peace, but also as a man who wrestled with anger, loss, and difficult choices before arriving at a philosophy of forgiveness.

In conversation with ESSENCE, Fuqua reflects on why revisiting Mandela felt important, how he approached shaping 70 hours of tape into a 94-minute film, what surprised him most about the man behind the legend, and much more.

ESSENCE: The film Troublemaker is very unique in the way it’s put together. Why did telling this story feel important to you? 

Antoine Fuqua: I think it’s important to tell stories about great leaders that brought meaningful change into the world, and for the younger generations to know the past so that we don’t repeat the past. Obviously, Nelson Mandela was such a globally iconic character, but people don’t really know the human side of Mandela; the fact that he was a fighter, that he was willing to engage in violence in the ’60s, and how he evolved into the Mandela that we all know and love.

One of the most intriguing parts of the film was the use of animation. How do you think that helped you to bring Mandela’s life to screen?

Well, when I got involved with the film, I didn’t realize that 27 years of Mandela’s life was completely erased in Robben Island. I knew he was on Robben Island, but I didn’t know there was no footage. No footage. I mean, nothing, not a photo. So when I went there and I’m filming on Robben Island, I’m capturing this, I’m thinking, “how am I going to tell this story?” I’m listening to his tapes—and I had 70 hours of tapes—and I’m thinking a big chunk of that is just gone. The man’s life was erased. So, I wanted to find an animator, but I wanted him to be South African, to understand what was going on there and had the sensibility of the South African journey there that’s apartheid. And they sent me several people and I saw Thabang’s work. And I’ve seen it before, but it didn’t hit me the same way.

I was trying to find something that had movement that almost felt like film in some way. It had the textures and movement, and it had a soul to it. So, when I saw his work, I immediately gravitated towards it. Then I sat down and had a meeting with him, and I love the guy because he’s very studious, thoughtful and understood the struggle there. I had him do a few test runs of the story. So what I would do is I would give him my storyboards and tell him to bring this to life. And then he would do a translation of it. Sometimes exactly like the boards, sometimes he’d go off the reservation a bit and it would be fantastic. So we found that relationship, and man, I’m really, really proud of him, man. He did a great job. 

You said that his work didn’t hit you the same way in the past. What was it about the work this time around that changed your mind? 

I think it had something to do with the subject matter. When you’re looking at something to purchase, it’s something that’s beautiful and moves you a certain way, that’s one thing. When you’re looking at something that has a deeper meaning now, because I’ve spent a lot of time there and then digging into the history of South Africa, even before Apartheid, it has a different meaning. As I evolved and learned, the images had a different meaning. Himself, Thabang’s journey had a different meaning. To be a South African painter had a different meaning. His struggles to even become who he’s become had a different meaning. 

So what do you think was the biggest challenge in turning over 70 hours of audio recordings into this 94-minute documentary? 

The biggest challenge? Everything. The biggest challenge was making those editing choices, because some great stuff doesn’t get into the film, but I wanted to keep Troublemaker about who Mandela was. I wanted people to see him as a human being, not just this global icon. I want people to understand that he was willing to go through violence to get meaningful change for justice, that it wasn’t just kumbaya. He was a human being—hloved women, and wanted to party when he first went to South Africa. All the things that remind us that it’s okay when you’re young to be who you are, be true to who you are, but you should always try to find a way to evolve and ascend into a better person. I think the lesson with Mandela for me is that when we see these great icons and these people we admire, like Ali, I admire, MLK, whoever it is, you got to look at them as human beings. 

I think that’s one of the most important things young people will take away; is that we can make change. We can change and be better. There’s another way. There’s always another way. Going through the tapes, selecting those moments to talk about, highlighting certain things and editing other things is just part of the process, but the lessons I got out of it were more important than some of the small moments. 

Is there anything in particular that stood out to you or that you learned about Mr. Mandela while working on this particular documentary that surprised you, or stood out to you?

There’s so many things. First of all, he was funny as hell. I didn’t realize that. He loved to party when he was young. I didn’t know that about him. There’s a picture in the cell of this, and Mac Maharaj cracks jokes all the time about it. When he was in his prison cell he and his wife were going through changes because she was obviously becoming who she became. He had a photo of this other woman, this African woman that was running on the beach. It was kind of a funny photo of her running on the beach and she was kind of half naked, this little picture that somehow Mandela had. And he used to always talk about how he wanted to meet this woman one day. 

So, when you think about stuff like that, Mandela in the prison cell with this little photo, and they have the photo in the museum of this woman there, it’s kind of thinking Mandela with the gray hair becoming the president of the country as this guy sitting in the prison cell, staring at this little photo of this little woman running on the beach. But again, those are the things that humanized Mandela for me.

Another thing I learned about Mandela was forgiveness and love. How do you forgive, man? How do you forgive, when 27 years of your life was taken away from you, when your son died while you were in prison, your mother died while you were in prison and you couldn’t even visit her. You had no idea what was happening in the rest of the world. You get letters and everything’s cut out and there’s little holes. You don’t even know what’s happening. How do you forgive that? That was a big lesson for me about Mandela, man, about evolving and being enlightened and what it really means to forgive someone.

TOPICS:  Nelson Mandela Sundance Film Festival

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