Origin and release year: South Africa (2022)

Starring: Thabo Rametsi, Elani Dekker, Arnold Vosloo, Tumisho Masha, Noxolo Dlamini, Stefan Erasmus, Justin Strydom

This film was based on real life events and it was… decent. That’s all I can give it. For a film about keeping hostages it fell flat as it lacked suspense. The intrigue came from the political implications in the plot and the solid storyline but that’s about it.

It’s an example of a film that could’ve done better had the actors been more emotionally compelling and convincing. Had the scenes been restructured and certain storylines better utilized, the impact of the film would’ve improved tenfold.

Besides Arnold Vosloo and Justin Strydom’s interactions, I didn’t find the rest of the acting very convincing. Thabo Rametsi did a better job than most of the other actors with only a few forced moments. Stefan Erasmus was also on the better side of the convincing acting spectrum but could’ve been better utilized, in my opinion.

I think the difference stood in how forced their lines and emotions felt. Considering this is a historically based film, it deserved more raw emotion to be portrayed properly.

I’ll give the film props in terms of production design and general look and feel. The action scenes were very well done. It felt like a nostalgic look at history. The soundtrack was also emotionally stirring which was nice.

However, despite all of my critiques above, I didn’t hate it. As I said, it was decent. It was entertaining to watch and interesting to learn about the event from a historical standpoint.

What did you think of Silverton Siege?