Jewel Tells The African Story And Surrounding Events Of ‘Sharpeville Massacre’ In Southern Africa

Telling original African stories with African actors, filmmakers is one of the strong suits of Netflix and that is what this new movie, Jewel is all about. This Netflix Original movie that takes a deep dive and tells the compelling story of the Sharpeville massacre; an incident that occured in March 1960 in the Black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of Black people, killing or wounding some 250 of them. It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa.

Written and directed by Adze Ugah who is the brain behind other remarkable productions like Isibaya, Jacobs Cross, Mrs Right Guy and Shaka, the new movie Jewel is produced by multiple award winning filmmaker Elvis Chuks and it parades a stellar cast that includes; Michelle Botes, Desmond Dube, Robert Whitehead, Connie Chiume, Sandile Mahlangu, Lilian Dube, Nunu Khumalo, Cindy Mahlangu and Senzo Radebe.

The movie producer, Elvis Chuks had this to say about producing the film, “It’s a true life story and it’s imperative that we use our voices and platforms to tell true and original African stories because if we don’t do it ourselves and do it right, someone else will and its highly possible they’ll get it wrong. Well, Netflix did cast the actors and the result is absolutely brilliant. The lead cast Michelle Botes is an amazing actor who fits the role perfectly.”