Final Solution Synopsis

GERRIT WOLFAARDT (Jan Ellis) is an Afrikaner, a white South African, who has set his heart on making peace between blacks and whites in his troubled country. But in 1993, near the time of South Africa's first-ever universal elections, violence has the upper hand. One night, a paramilitary group of whites makes a hit-and-run attack in a township, and meets with unexpected resistance from an underground unit of black resistance fighters.

JAN OOSTHUIZEN (David Lee), the leader of the paramilitary group, flees to a nearby church, pleading for safety. As it so happens, Gerrit and his wife, CELESTE (Liezel van der Merwe), are in this church as part of an interracial prayer service. As an angry mob gathers to bring Jan to vigilante justice, Gerrit speaks up and tells the crowd that he is the one they are really seeking because at one time he trained Jan to hate and kill.

Convincing the crowd to hear his story, Gerrit recounts his personal journey from racist to peacemaker. One of his early childhood memories is the tale of his grandfather's "murder" (He was shot by a British firing squad in the Boer War.). In his search for identity as a teenager, Gerrit's role model becomes Adolf Hitler. He reads Mein Kampf cover-to-cover and concocts a "final solution" for the Swart Gevaar, or "Black Menace." The solution - as was Hitler's for the Jews - is genocide. And he receives the backing of rogue elements within the South African military to carry out his plans.

Diverting Gerrit from his diabolical purpose are two people - the young Celeste, and REV. PETER LEKOTA (John Kani), who is able to forgive Gerrit for attempted murder. That forgiveness, and a deep conviction that he is on a road leading to his own destruction, dramatically turn Gerrit's course.

But Gerrit's moving odyssey of personal change is hardly accepted by all in the audience. Among those listening is a young Black man - MOSES MOREMI (Mpho Lovinga) - whom Gerrit (in his earlier days) had physically beaten within an inch of his life. Moses is not inclined to forgive, and now confronts Gerrit with the memory of the savage beating.

What will the outcome be? Some maintain that peace and forgiveness is the solution - not just to the specific case of Jan, but to the larger picture of the South African nation and the world. However, talk can be considered cheap, and as everyone knows, problems that have developed over centuries are not solved in days or hours. Will Gerrit's pleas for forgiveness win the day, or result in even more bloodshed - costing him, perhaps, his own life as well?