Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

–William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

I watched Invictus last evening and the movie was what I can best describe as a very personal experience. Invictus, is the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country.

Minutes into the movie, Nelson Mandela the newly elected president of the Republic of South Africa speaks to the nation. With every sentence he threw me closer to breaking down in tears. The movie had so many touching moments that it just hit home. I have never felt this close to a movie ever…

It all started sometime just before the 2010 Fifa World Cup. While looking at the preparations for the event I curiously researched about South Africa, a country that was till even the 1990s plagued with racial conflict. As I read about the freedom struggle and about the work of Nelson Mandela, I couldn’t help but be moved.

Invictus will thus be one of those rare movies that I will choose never to write a review about. I am too emotionally biased to make a judgment about whether someone else would enjoy the movie. But instead I would encourage to read about apartheid and the stories of those brave souls that fought and won against it.