ESPN Films 30 for 30: The 16th Man

Clint Eastwood's 2009 inspirational drama INVICTUS starred Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in a dramatic recreation of the 1995 Rugby World Cup that immediately followed the final years of apartheid in South Africa; this unofficial companion film on the same subject (narrated by Freeman) revisits the events within a documentary context. It tells how South African prime minister Nelson Mandela began rebuilding a unified nation following the fall of Apartheid in 1994, and looked to the said World Cup of rugby to demonstrate racial integration. Though the South African Springboks had only one black player, they quickly became a symbol of color-blindness and racial harmony - a truth that took on new resonance when the Springboks won the World Cup and Mandela walked out onto the field to shake hands with the captain of the Springboks. Cliff Bestall directs.