"Anna has had to come to terms with her own shame and seek forgiveness for what has been done in the name of her nation," says Boorman. "What Anna experiences at the TRC changes her entire world," says Binoche.  "Her soul is laid bare and, sometimes, in order to do a scene, I had to create the feeling of being naked in front of the camera."
"There was a time when I was emotionally exhausted," continues Binoche.  "We were going through so many different layers of emotion, feelings of not knowing, and being lost and naked. I felt I couldn't take it any more. Yet as an actress you have to expose yourself, otherwise there's nothing for people to react to. So you keep going."
"I had a scene with Samuel where we fought physically. I got bruises. When John Boorman apologised to me afterwards for putting me in that situation, I said that 'it's nothing.'  Nothing, compared to what's happened in the past and the story we're trying to tell. This is the least I can do, get my own bruises."
Despite their often-explosive exchanges, a shared vulnerability is what brings Langston and Anna together, perhaps also because each recognises in the other that which they hide from themselves.  Slowly, Langston's initial dislike and mistrust gives way to respect as he recognises that, unlike himself, Anna is able to confront her past, tries to make sense of it and then embraces the future. "Through the contact he has with Anna and also, to a degree, with Anderson, Langston starts to realize what it must have taken for the people to forgive and the level of spirituality and unity amongst them," says Jackson. "I think that it is important for people to realize what the principle of Ubuntu is because we can all use this principle in achieving world peace.  It provides a way for the whole world to live together and to share the wealth on the planet."
"Langston and Anna are faced with a universal, human dilemma and they deal with it by finding solace in each other," says Chartoff.  "As a filmmaker there is a beautiful parity in the fact that they are a black and a white individual who come to this point where they're forced to relate to the story culturally, based on who they are as human beings, their personal history and to that extent they come to it from different places, and to some degree that's a result of the colour of their skin."
The relationship between Anna and Langston further explores the theme of betrayal.  "It is difficult for most of us to understand the mind of a perpetrator of atrocities," says Peacock. "We can neither empathize nor comprehend as it is too far removed, but we can comprehend and identify with personal betrayal. I wanted to show a situation where someone, in this case Anna, does something unthinkable and commits adultery."  While Peacock doesn't try to equate adultery with murder and torture, in Anna's betrayal of her husband, there is an intended parallel between the voice of the perpetrator, Col. De Jager and the relationship that unfolds between Anna and Langston.  "De Jager says that 'we didn't just go out and do it. It was incremental, it was a process.' This also holds true for adultery," says Peacock.   Anna must take responsibility for having committed adultery if she is to have learned anything from attending the hearings.  "In other words, when she becomes a "perpetrator" she must confess and ask forgiveness if she is to try to heal the harm she has done."
Peacock believes that the power of truth or lack thereof of applies to all actions.  "Anna's husband, Edward, doesn't know about her secret affair with Langston, but that does not mean that it is not having an effect on their marriage. The lie can only undermine the marriage, not promote it. As Anna's mother, Elsa says: 'The lie took something away, Anna,'" explains Peacock.
Honesty and revelation are central to "Truth" and while paying homage to the work done by the TRC, it offers great insights into the psyche of all societies confronting issues of truth. 
 
ABOUT THE CASTING
"Casting this picture was easy," muses Robert Chartoff.  "It has been rare in my experience to have the good fortune of having two actors who were so eager to do a picture."  Chartoff and Boorman first met with Samuel L. Jackson some years ago in Los Angeles.  "Sam walked into the room, sat down and looked at John and I and said, 'I want to thank you for giving me this script'.  He said that an actor hopes, once in his life, to get a great role, and that we had provided him with that great role," recalls Chartoff.
The producers had to look no further than Jackson. "I have been attached to the project from the very beginning," enthuses Jackson. "This script was head and shoulders above any other that I have read lately and it is very real.  I hope that this film will engender conversations and debate after people have seen it" 
"Samuel so identified with this character that I cannot imagine anyone else playing Langston," says Hendee.  Jackson's inherent understanding of the character allowed him to imbue Langston with considerable depth.  "Sam Jackson comes off quite a bit different to how we imagine him in the script," comments John Boorman. "He has a lightness, a quickness and a wit and an irony that has brought another dimension to this character."
Casting Juliette Binoche was as easy and instinctive for the producers.  "We gave the script to her agent for her," says Chartoff.  "Unlike a lot of actresses who will not read scripts without offers, Juliette read the script and was immediately not just committed, but devoted to this character.  The fact that John Boorman was doing the picture and the nature of the subject matter, appealed to her."
"I needed an actress who could negotiate the emotional strengths that are called for from this character," says Boorman. "She has a deep truth about her acting, often, in emotional situations, she doesn't know what she is doing, it is a kind of out of body experience for her - it's as though she is standing alongside me, observing Anna, yet not knowing what she would do, unable to control her.  This is a very dangerous but also very exciting way of acting. In total contrast to Sam Jackson who is a consummate film actor, technically expert and can turn it on and turn it off like a light switch." 
"Juliette is breathlessly wonderful as I knew she would be," says Hendee.  The chemistry between Sam and Juliette is terrific.  It is always a worry when casting that the actors will have a chemistry between them and in this instance we have great chemistry."
Brendan Gleeson was an obvious choice for the role of De Jager.  No stranger to playing complex, evil characters, Gleeson is renowned for his ability to get under the skin of the characters and humanise them.  "Brendan brings so much to the character of De Jager," comments Hendee.  "He is playing someone who is by all accounts beyond redemption and yet Brendan manages to give us great insights into the character and even help us to empathise with him." 
The quality of the performances by the South African talent that make up the bulk of the cast was a revelation to the filmmakers. "I have been amazed by the depth of the local talent," says Chartoff.  "I didn't know what to expect, but each one of them has provided a skill and a quality of professionalism
that has been of the highest quality." 
Making his feature film debut is dynamic young television star, Menzi Ngubane who plays Anna's sound engineer, Dumi.  "He is all heart, his performance has been great and he is just a really warm presence on set," says Hendee.  "What has been a revelation is the fact that he has a gorgeous voice.  During one of the scenes there was a spontaneous rendition of a song and his was the lead voice.  We were all shocked that he had such a great voice and it seemed that, whether he was being modest or not, I don't know, he was equally surprised."
Some 300 extras were used for the crowd scenes and each of these people were also individually chosen by John Boorman.  "John is very specific in terms of authenticity and representation," says Extras Casting Co-Ordinator, Russell Boast.  "As far as possible, I did not work through the agencies, but chose people off of the streets in order to be able to give John ordinary people who would be fully representative of our society." 
 
FILMING IN MY COUNTRY
The TRC hearings were held throughout South Africa in order to allow as many people as possible to partake.  From major cities to small towns and villages, the TRC road show encompassed all.  In some cases tiny community or school halls had to be used making it necessary for people to travel for many kilometres to attend.  A particularly poignant example of this is the old man in the film who is transported to the hearings in a wheelbarrow.
Identifying locations that would perfectly serve the demands of the film was a challenge, especially given the fact that shooting on the film would be confined to the Cape Town area and yet had to somehow reflect the country as a whole.  "John Boorman had a phenomenal sense of the country and was very exacting in terms of what he wanted," says Unit Manager, Morgan Pather.  "His research had been very thorough and he was determined that this film would be truly reflective of the country as a whole, even if we were, for reasons of logistics, bound to the Western Cape."
"John said that he wanted the look of the film to be as close to everyday South Africa as possible and that we weren't going to beautify anything," says Art Director, Emelia Roux-Weavind.  "I had an enormous amount of freedom on the project because he felt that, as a South African, I would best know what the design elements should be and what they should reflect.  He was at pains not to impress a European vision onto the project."  The locations identified by Boorman were chosen with such care and an inherent understanding of both the practical and visual requirements of the story that design aspects were kept to the minimum.
"Many of the locations chosen were perfect as they were," comments Roux-Weavind.  "Often, when designing for film, one looks past the simple things and it is often the simple things that give the film its authenticity.  The town hall at Mandela Park squatter camp is a case in point - it is perfect as it is because it reflects perfectly the community that lives there.  In most cases we simply worked around what we found at the various locations, often using the equipment available at the location and only adding the TRC banners and TRC paraphernalia."
Kalbaskraal, a tiny settlement about 40km north of Cape Town provided the filmmakers with considerable scope.  "The village is pretty isolated and has a wonderful rural feel to it.  Like many settlements in South Africa, it has been developed around a railway siding and because this is such a small community, it has great character," comments Pather.  Kalbaskraal provided a great location for the various Transkei sequences. "Kalbaskraal was yet another location that was perfectly chosen in terms of the look of the village," says Roux-Weavind.  "However, since this was to have been the Transkei, we did make a few changes to the outer buildings by including a series of posters and signage depicting very familiar Transkei brands."
The Cape Town city bowl yielded a number of fine, and significant, locations including the National Museum, The Centre for the Book, Magistrates Court and the historical Rhodes Place.  "The diversity we found within the confines of the city added much to the visual landscape of the film," comments Pather.  "In many instances John will recognise something in a building that just seems so right for the story."
While the diverse architecture of the Western Cape fulfilled all the requirements of the script, the province could not provide the various landscapes that John Boorman envisaged.  "All the hearings were held indoors and even though the architecture of the buildings differed greatly, John feared that the story would be trapped in courtrooms," says Second Unit Director, Kevan Barker.  "We needed to capture a true sense of the landscape as a backdrop to the hearings and also to open up the film and provide a pause between the dramatic sequences."  To this end Barker scouted different parts of the country and then headed off into the hinterland with the second unit.  "Our ten day, 4000km journey took us through the desolate Karoo, the majestic, verdant Drakensberg Mountain range in Kwa Zulu Natal, the dramatic Maluti Mountains on the Free State/Lesotho border and on to the isolated hamlet of New Bethesda."
Travelling with the Second Unit was the TRC bus and a convoy of 4x4 vehicles as well as Langston's BMW.  "We shot the convoy moving in both directions and also shot sequences of Langston's car driving across the landscape as well as arriving at the small town of Clarens," says Barker.  "I think the greatest surprise for all of us was the fact that the bus did not break down along the way.  We had been very concerned by the fact that it was a very old bus and that in typical fashion, the moment we were miles from anywhere, it would break down."
In order to accurately recreate the TRC hearings on film, an enormous amount of research had to be done by the art department before filming commenced.  "John Boorman's approach to the whole project was one of reverence and he was adamant that the hearings be depicted in as authentic a fashion as possible," comments Roux-Weavind. "Creating an authentic setting for the hearings was also important to the actors as it provided them with an atmosphere conducive to the performances that John expected of them."  We were really lucky in that the hearings were covered in detail both on television and in the printed media, affording us a wealth of archival material for reference purposes," says Roux-Weavind.  "The layout of the hearings was always the same - the commissioners on the stage, a witness stand and then a table for the perpetrators.  There were television cameras focused on the commissioners, also on the witness and the perpetrators.  The translators would be in sound proof booths opposite the perpetrators."
  Roux-Weavind consulted with a number of journalists and cameramen who covered the hearings to gain greater insight into the workings of the commission and the equipment used. "Antjie Krog, in particular, was a great source of information because she had, of course, been at so many of the hearings and was able to tell us of the layout and also point us in the direction of people who could help us get our hands on TRC equipment."  During shooting of the hearing sequences ex-TRC cameramen were employed to help with the positioning of television cameras and also act as extras. "I believe that we have recreated the hearings with absolute accuracy, right down to the sound-proof booths used by the interpreters and translators."
Unfortunately the original posters and banners from the TRC have long found their way into museums and private collections, therefore the art department had to generate these from reference.
Each of the hearings depicted in the film explores a specific theme and involves a specific community.  "Although all the hearings in the film are conducted along similar lines, they each involve different communities and this also had to be taken into account in depicting the different hearings," says Roux-Weavind.  Small touches were added to each hall that said something about the community it served.  "The nuances are subtle, but they are important in that they provide subliminal clues as to character of the community.  One example is the hearing at the Farmers' Co-Operative, this was a predominantly Afrikaans hearing and if you look closely we have used a number of little things to give clues as to the character of the community, even in the style of the floral arrangements."
The TRC bus used in the film is merely a picture vehicle.  "Journalists covering the hearings generally used their own transport, but it is a great visual that provides a contrast between how little the local journalists covering the hearings had at their disposal compared with the international journalists who mostly drove around in more expensive cars," says Roux-Weavind.
In terms of the look of the film, John Boorman decided on a very natural look for the whole film.  "During my initial discussion with John, we opted for a very traditional style of shooting, so that you almost wouldn't notice the camera," says Director of Photography, Seamus Deasy.  Many of the scenes are so intense that any wild camera work would detract from rather than enhance the story."
Working in the harsh South African light proved challenging to Deasy, but as the winter approached, he found that the light became a little gentler.  "It is very difficult to photograph actors, particularly female actors, if there is a high sun hitting them.  So we made a decision early on that whenever the sun was shining we would backlight and fill in softly from the front." Often Deasy and Boorman would schedule the day's work in such a way that they shot one way in the morning and then held over till the afternoon to shoot the reverse. 
Available light was used wherever possible and all interiors were lit in such a way that it looked like natural lighting filtering in. In terms of the colour palette, Deasy opted for a natural but slightly de-saturated look. "We didn't use any filters, we didn't soften anything - very often on films they use diffusion filters, we didn't use any.  It's a harsh realistic look."
"We are doing a digital grade of the whole film and we probably will slightly de-saturate the whole film, by maybe 10 or 15 percent," continues Deasy.  "Because we shot the whole film in the Cape Town area, though the story is set all over South Africa so during the digital grade we can make some places look greener or dryer and so on."
"I think the timing of this film is uncanny," says Robert Chartoff.  "We started working on this project long before Iraq and before the new American tactic to have pre-emptive strikes.  So I think it has become even more significant, more relevant today than when we first started to pursue this project.  If you look at the history of mankind, Christ talked about do unto others and the Hindus talk about karma and the connection between people, I don't think there is much practice of it.  Here was a practical example of its use and I think pragmatically it worked for the society at large.  I think it has a new relevance."