DHAKA: A new screen biopic of Nelson Mandela does not shy away from the less flattering aspects of his character, according to its British star.

‘It was important we had both sides, the good and the bad,’ said Idris Elba, reports the BBC.

Early scenes in Justin Chadwick’s film show Mandela as a womaniser who was violent to his first wife Evelyn.

‘I didn’t want to deface Mr Mandela in any way,’ the Luther actor continued.

‘But I didn’t want to portray him in a way that wasn`t honest.’

Elba was speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, where ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’ had its world premiere this weekend.

Based on the former South African president’s autobiography, the film charts his early life as a lawyer, his political activism and the 27 years of imprisonment that preceded his democratic election in 1994.

Naomie Harris, also British, plays Mandela’s second wife Winnie in Justin Chadwick’s two-and-a-half hour drama.

BDST: 1945 HRS, SEPT 09, 2013
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