Netflix's "Amandla": Ending Explained

Netflix's Amandla is a haunting adaptation that made its entry into the platform on January 21, 2022.

Amandla is a film written and directed by Nerina De Jager, and it stars the Tsipa brothers, held by blood yet divided by fate. The film is a fantastic illustration of South Africa's apartheid people being exploited, and the narrative of their struggle is frightening yet real.

Warning: This article contains spoilers and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Analyzing the end of "Amandla"

Amandla opens at Muller Farms in South Africa, a property owned by the white couple Miesies and Jakob. On that farm lives, a family of Zulus who was sheltered by them from the time Martin Luther King was arrested and mass murders were on the rise. Khumalos were farmers and servants who had two sons, the older and wiser Impi, and the younger Nkosana.

The daughter of owner Jakob, Elizabeth was friends with both these boys but shared an intimate relationship with Impi. On the occasion of Dingaan's day, the boys were bullied by a bunch of rowdy white men, who brutally killed their parents that night and set their home on fire. Kissing Elizabeth came at such a price that Impi had to run for his life alongside his brother Nkosana into the African slums of Isando.

Survival makes a man do the strangest of things, and Imbi became a smooth criminal to support his brother, put food on the table and grow up together. But fate had both the brothers placed on different edges of the law, Impi now the father of a daughter and a criminal robber, while Nkosana was a policeman in the making.

The dark slums of Someto engulfed Impi so deep that soon he found himself in the clutches of underground mafia shaka, and under his compulsion and threat had to do terrible things. The worst of the lot included mutilating the love of his life Elizabeth forever, the guilt of which Isme could hardly bury within him.

While Nkosana went outside of his duty as a policeman to save his brother's family from doom, fate had a bloody end in store for all of them. But the movie ends in a remarkable set of tragedies, which had subtle links with the ghosts of their past.

Just as the white couple had sheltered their family, an unknown mother took charge to raise Impi's daughter Nomusa as her own. Much like their parents, Impi and his girlfriend Alina lost their lives at the hands of fate. Nkosana laid his life for the only person who cared the most for him in this world, and they left as a brother in arms, just as they had come.

There is also the possibility of salvation at the end of Amandla, as bright flashbacks of gold and brown are shown where the three kids Impi, Nkosana, and Elizabeth used to play, showcasing a world undivided by violence and strengthened by love and friendship.