Nicole Aebi-Moyo

THE MISSION

The team behind feature film 'London Recruits,' which tells the true story of the young volunteers recruited for undercover missions against South Africa's apartheid regime, need your help to transport a collection of rare cine films to the UK. The collection - packaged and ready to be sent from Melbourne - consists of unreleased apartheid-era titles dating back to the early 1950s. This collection of films contain vital archive material. Without them the filmmakers cannot finish this remarkable story that needs to be told!

International shipping comes at a cost but with your support this historic collection can be restored and form part of our film.

THE LONDON RECRUITS STORY

South Africa 1967. Imprisoned, tortured, killed - the apartheid regime has all but annihilated opposition inside the country. It seems that all hope for liberation is at an end. The brutal policy of racial segregation and white privilege has won.

Despite the enormous odds against success, exiled ANC leader Oliver Tambo is not prepared to contemplate defeat. Whilst he sets in motion a five year plan to rebuild the internal ANC network from the bottom up, he cannot afford for the wider population to lose hope, or for the authorities to believe that they have won. He initiates a top-secret plan.

Ronnie Kasrils, a young, charismatic ANC freedom fighter is despatched to London. From 8000 miles away, working undercover as a student, Ronnie is tasked with the ultimate propaganda campaign. He is asked to convince the apartheid authorities and the oppressed population that hope lives on and that ANC units are still alive and well, and able to operate across South Africa.

    Freedom fighter Ronnie Kasrils (left) and ANC leader Oliver Tambo (right).  

Operating on a shoe-string budget and working with a tight cell of fellow exiles, Ronnie turns to the young women and men of London for help. With this unit of amateur secret agents, many of whom have never been on a plane before, let alone worked undercover in a police state, Ronnie orchestrates a series of ever more daring clandestine missions inside South Africa.

Some of the London Recruits: (left to right) Katherine Salahi, Norman Lucas & John Rose who travelled to

   South Africa undercover to assist the liberation struggle.

Thousands of miles from home, with no means of communicating with London, can our volunteers send shock waves through the regime and bring hope to millions, as the secret police’s net draws ever tighter around them? Kept secret for over 40 years, this is the incredible story of their recruitment, the nail-biting excitement of their death-defying missions and of the apartheid agents closing in on their trail. 

                                         Mary Chamberlain and partner posed as an emigrating couple to smuggle resistance materials into 

Cape Town on passenger liner SA Vaal. 

A potent mix of action packed drama, candid testimony from the recruits, eyewitnesses, secret police and, with your help, never before seen archive footage, London Recruits will be a compelling journey into the heart of apartheid. 

THE ARCHIVE 

The team have painstakingly scanned and restored hundreds of hours of apartheid era film and have developed a workflow to ensure that the best possible quality is achieved from old cine film. Click below to watch examples of recently scanned (pre grade/edit) film. 

The total cost to courier the entire collection to the UK is $250. All funds raised from this campaign will be spent on transportation costs. 

We have the training needed and machinery in place to scan and restore the film to the highest possible quality, and believe that we have eliminated all potential challenges to this goal.