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Mail & Guardian

The Woman King

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Serial success: The KwaZulu-Natal-born actress Thuso Mbedu as Aleah in Task, which is set to premiere on HBO on 7 September and on Showmax the following day.
BRAD INGELSBY

Thuso Mbedu’s more than up to this task

HBO series Task brings together action, emotion and moral complexity. The actress talks accents, preparation and why this new role pushed her to the limit

  • Rolland Simpi Motaung
5 min read
Protests at the Iranian embassy in Spain after the killing of Mahsa Amini. (Photo By Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press via Getty Images)
GIORGIA MELON

Women, life, freedom and the left

Four recent news stories show how the politics of sex and gender can either challenge or reinforce existing power structures

  • Slavoj Žižek
6 min read
Set in 1823, the film stays far truer to the historic events that inspired it than many of the genre’s supposed classics. ILZE KITSHOFF/TRISTAR PICTURES
THE WOMAN KING

The Woman King delivers a brilliant African story unfettered by many tired tropes

Set in 1823, the film stays far truer to the historic events that inspired it than many of the genre’s supposed classics

  • Simon Taylor
8 min read
Dwandalyn Reece, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Viola Davis, Shiela Atim, Cathy Shulman and Julius Tennon speak onstage during THE WOMAN KING Special Screening at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 15, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Entertainment)
GINA PRINCE BYTHEWOOD

Meet some of the cast of ‘The Woman King’

‘The Woman King’ tells the story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and fierceness

  • Bongeka Gumede
5 min read
Battle: A scene from The Woman King, which tells the story of all-woman warrior unit the Agojie, which protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey from the 17th to the 19th century.
FILM SCORES

The music mastery behind ‘The Woman King’

Five-time Grammy winner Terence Blanchard talks composing score for the box office hit

  • Lihle Z Mtshali
8 min read
GINA PRINCE BYTHEWOOD

Secrets of making an all black woman action film

Mail & Guardian Friday editor Lerato Tshabalala chats to ‘The Woman King’ director Gina Maria Prince-Bythewood about working with Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu

  • Lerato Tshabalala
17 min read