The Power of One

By: Cristian Balan

This movie was going to be the first I have ever seen that was based on South African segregation and racism towards the natives. The Power of One was told ingeniously by having the protagonist be a young boy with English heritage. You would think this type of movie would be a documentary of some sort, but surprisingly it was able to focus on one person and still tell a story about South Africa’s history. The plot of the story the boy or P.K has unfortunate luck all throughout the movie. His parents die; he is bullied and accentually alone at an Afrikaner school and, when a man named Doc finally takes him in, they are sent to a prison camp. P.K. grows up in the prison camp learning from Doc and the prison inmates. A prison inmate named Geel Piet teaches P.K. how to box. This skill allows P.K. to fight in professional boxing matches in the future.

When P.K. was an adult he began helping the natives for equality by going to a multi-racial boxing gym, trying to teach the natives how to read and even fight Africans in the ring to not show segregation. He eventually meets this girl named Maria that he wants to date but her father, Prof. Daniel Morais, is a Government figure with a mind filled of hatred and anger always trying to stop P.K. from doing anything with his daughter. Eventually after many conflicts Prof. Daniel Morais sends officers to stop P.K. from teaching the natives and to get his daughter away from her. This raid kills Maria which I find it to be the hilariously ironic because the dad did the opposite of protecting his daughter. This makes Prof. Daniel Morais furious and he will stop at no cost to kill P.K.