The Power of One is a 1992 drama film based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Bryce Courtenay. Set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s, the film centers on the life of Peter Philip 'P.K.' Kenneth-Keith, a young English boy raised during the apartheid era, and his relationship with a German pianist, a Coloured prisoner and a boxing coach. Directed and edited by John G. Avildsen, the film adaptation stars Stephen Dorff, John Gielgud, Morgan Freeman, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Daniel Craig in one of his early roles.
Synopsis
Born in 1930 to a recently widowed British-born mother on a farm in rural South Africa, P.K. leads a simple life initially, learning the ways of England from his mother and the ways of Africa from his Zulu nanny, whose son Tonderai is his best friend. However everything is changed dramatically for P.K. when the cattle are struck down by plague, causing his mother to have a nervous breakdown. While his mother is recovering, P.K. is sent to an Afrikaner boarding school. Being the only English speaker, he soon becomes the target of the other boys. They hold him responsible for the deaths of thousands of Afrikaners Second Anglo-Boer War and vow to punish him accordingly.
PK is bullied and teased by everyone at the school, but most of all by the older boys, led by Jaapie The Judge Botha. In one incident, Peekay is urinated on by "The Judge" and the other students, earning the name "Pisskop" (pisshead in Afrikaans). This causes him to begin wetting the bed. Later when he goes home to attend his mother's funeral, he tells 'Nanny' all about the bedwetting. She arranges for a Zulu medicine man, Dabula Manzi, to come and cure PK of his bedwetting. Dabula Manzi helps PK to conquer his fears by leading him into the dreamworld. He also shows Peekay a piece of "magic" (which is revealed to be a simple trick) involving chickens, where the chicken remains sitting and docile within a circle drawn in the dust. PK is given a chicken, which he names Mother Courage (in the book, the chicken is named Grandpa Chook).
One day, coinciding with the rise of Hitler, PK is captured, along with Mother Courage, by the other boys and brought to a mock-trial by Botha, which reveals his new obsession with Hitler and the depths of his hatred for the English. First, Mother Courage is taken, and hung from the ceiling, Botha killing it by hitting it with a rock from a sling. Enraged, PK lunges at Botha, impaling him in the buttocks with a flag which humiliates him in front of the others. In anger, he orders PK to be hung in the same position as Mother Courage, where Botha strikes him with rocks from his sling. At that moment a teacher storms in, striking Botha in the face and saving PK from possible death. As a result of the incident, Botha is expelled from the school and is viewed as a disgrace by his family.
With Mother and Mother Courage now dead, and Tonderai and Nanny forced to return to Southern Rhodesia the outlook seems bleak for PK, as he finds himself alone in the world. However a bright spot appears on the horizon when PK's grandfather arrives back from the Congo and PK goes to live with him in Barberton. However, as they fail to connect, his grandfather beckons a friend of his to see him, a German pianist and amateur botanist, Karl 'Doc' von Vollensteen. The two soon become good friends, and, with his grandfather's agreement, Doc begins to mentor the young PK and provides him also with piano lessons. Instead of monetary payment, PK pays for his lessons by helping Doc gather cacti in the surrounding hills.
However, just as World War II begins, Doc is arrested for failing to register as an enemy alien in wartime. Doc is sentenced to stay in Barberton Prison for the rest of the war, and PK regularly visits him in prison. The kommandant (commander) of the prison, a Boer who admires German culture, gives Doc special treatment and allows him to keep a cactus garden in the courtyard, as well as his piano in his cell. Doc is dismayed by PK's poor schoolwork and, in order to teach him to use his brain, arranges for him to be taught boxing by a Coloured prisoner named Geel Piet (Afrikaans for "Yellow Peter"). Geel Piet becomes a close friend of PK's, and trains him to become an astounding boxer.
PK, now 12, feels compassion and sympathy for the appallingly treated black prisoners, and helps Geel Piet organise an intricate black market scheme, smuggling tobacco and letters from family members into the prison. As a result, many of the prisoners start calling PK The Rainmaker. He also helps arrange a concert for Doc in the prison, and convinces the commandant to allow a vocal accompaniment from the black prisoners. On the night of the concert, PK notices that Geel Piet has not shown up, and goes to find him. He can not find him returns to the concert. Afterward, he finds Geel Piet's bloody body lying in the yard. A viciously racist Afrikaner warder, Sgt. Borman, sadistically bludgeoned him to death with his baton after learning the lyrics to the song.
After the end of the war, Doc is freed, but returns to his native Germany. In 1948, PK, now 18 (Stephen Dorff), is attending the Prince of Wales School in Johannesburg. He has won the respect of the school headmaster, St. John, as seen when he indicates arranging a scholarship for PK due to his lack of funds. His best friend is Morrie Gilbert, also his manager who schedules boxing fights for him. In one particular fight, PK sees an Afrikaner girl who he falls in love with. Later, through Morrie's help, he learns that she is none other than Maria Marais, daughter of National Party intellectual Prof. Daniel Marais. Since her father obviously will not permit them to date, they do so secretely, and she accompanies him to the Alexandria township to a boxing fight against a Black boxer, Gideon Duma. Even though the latter loses the bout, Gideon and PK become good friends. Duma's passion for resisting apartheid prompts PK to return temporarily to the African countryside of his childhood, inspiring him and Morrie to begin English classes for the blacks. This, along with PK's romance with Maria, and his links with an unsegregated gym led by anti-racist Afrikaner boxing coach Hoppie Gruenewald, attracts the wrath of Dr. Marais and the police. In one raid on the gym, PK is forced to confront his childhood enemy Jaapie Botha, now a police seargent (Daniel Craig). Botha blames PK for his expulsion from school after the incident with the sling and warns him that they still have unfinished business. At the same time, his blossoming relationship with Maria begins to deepen, in spite of her father's objections, but comes to a tragic end when, during a police raid on Morrie's uncle's Anglican church during one of the English lessons, Maria is bludgeoned to death by a police truncheon. The heartbreaking experience temporarily crushes PK, but Gideon resurrects his spirits when he shows him the enormous difference that learning English has made to his people.
Events come to a violent climax that night when police, including Botha, raid the Alexandria township in search of PK. They enter in full force, killing several innocent people. As a deranged Botha prepares to shoot an innocent black man, PK steps out of hiding, demanding that he end the raid. Both men square off and fight each other, with PK soon gaining the upper hand and knocking Botha out. However just when his back is turned, Botha reawakens and attempts to shoot PK with his revolver, but Gideon Duma steps in and strikes Botha across the head with a wooden plank, presumably killing him.
The next morning, both men hide out in the scrubland from the police and set off into the morning sunshine in their campaign against the regime, PK recounting the various voices in his life, from Mother and Nanny, to Doc and Dabula Manzi, and to Maria.
Soundtrack
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