Actors and filmmakers pay tribute to Nelson Mandela at Dubai International Film Festival

Gulf News

International filmmakers and actors at the Dubai International Film Festival share how they have been influenced by the life of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

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00:00He would have been extremely grateful to have lived during such a great present time on

00:18the earth and to have shared a vision that was so unique and so deeply human and uncompromising.

00:26Probably the most inspired human being on the planet and will be for a very long time.

00:36He showed us what was possible so we're grateful to Mandela.

00:40I would say the overriding feeling I have for him was gratitude and the old prayer is

00:49we pray that a band of angels gathers him and leads him to paradise.

00:55He cares about the world, he cares about peace, he cares about humanity and as filmmakers

01:01I think our primary concern is about the human condition, about humanity so we hope that

01:07he rests well.

01:08Back in the day in New York, the lawyer I was working with was all about freeing Nelson

01:15Mandela.

01:16He was in prison then and we were all working to get him out.

01:19I worked particularly well with Kadil Asmar who was the Minister for Education in the

01:25first government.

01:26He was from India and he spent all his time in Ireland working out for anti-apartheid

01:32and the theatre I ran we used to help them.

01:35Kadil was a great man so there were a lot of unsung heroes down there.

01:40John Canney I knew and people forget that there's a big Indian culture in South Africa

01:47so I'm sure in India tonight they're crying for Mandela.

01:50I'm glad we can celebrate his legacy with the film that we've brought here.

01:55I hope the message is that we get to actually see the way he lived and we know it but it's

02:00nice to visually absorb it.

02:03When a very significant human being like him passes away, even if you don't know him personally,

02:13you feel sad because an era is done and you know that what he has fought for is what we

02:22are still fighting for in every country, in any nation.

02:26We just want to hold on to that reality that maybe we can find a Nelson Mandela within ourselves.

02:40It's not always that there will be a very, very special human being like him.

02:48They all go but we will always remember him if he stays in our hearts.

02:55I hope you, me, anybody, I hope we will have a Nelson Mandela within us.

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