What "Catch A Fire" lacks in depth it nearly makes up for in timeliness.

Somewhere amid this story of Apartheid-era South Africa and the fury that boiled over in the oppressed, leading them to cast off their shackles and fight back, there’s a nod to the way history repeats itself and a lesson for us today, some 25 years later.

“Fire’s” surface story is terrorism, the way the term was used during Apartheid in the 1980s and the way the government’s overreaction to this terrorism in turn bred even more "terrorists." But the real story here has as many ties to the way the term is batted around in 2006, and the ways that a similar attempt to rule a people from afar has led to the galvanizing, organizing and rallying of a new wave of terrorists.

It is no doubt along these lines that "Catch A Fire" will be judged by audiences this weekend – not as a historical drama, but as a timely, incendiary political thriller, no different than this year’s "An Inconvenient Truth," or soon-to-be-released "Iraq in Fragments." Director Phillip Noyce (“Rabbit-Proof Fence”), who once upon a time created such fluff as "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger," has turned to more serious fare as of late, and "Catch A Fire" is another step in the direction of an increasingly socially and politically-minded provocateur.

The battle lines here are simple: Nic (Tim Robbins) is the symbol of the white government – though a particularly evil symbol, who projects both the cold and calculating demeanor of a hired thug while exuding the air of a dignified family man. On the other end of the spectrum is Patrick (Derek Luke), a hard-working, soft-spoken, non-political man in this country on the verge of revolution, determined to keep his family safe and the revolutionaries out of his home.

That is until one day an explosion detonates on the train tracks, the police – irate at the continued terrorist attacks – decide to crack down, and the outside world comes crashing through Patrick’s front gate.

Arrested, he’s quickly taken to a nearby lake and “interrogated” as Nic and associates water-board Patrick – a form of torture that has become the center of today’s torture debate – and ask time and again what he knows of the terrorist plans. Bruised and exhausted, he passively endures this daily horror until one day his wife (Bonnie Mbuli) winds up in the same prison cell.

Exploding into a fit of rage – a stunning acting moment that might just earn Luke an acting nomination – Patrick tells Nic that he’ll answer to whatever he wants, offer him any confession he demands, if only he’ll let the woman go.

Instead, Nic decides to release Patrick, but releases him back into a life tossed upside down. No longer the man of his house, no longer the mild-mannered pacifist, he feels he has no choice than to be abandon his home, train with the revolutionaries and risk it all in avenging the injustice done to his family.

“Fire” is less about history than emotions, and throughout the film there is a sense of fear, urgency and anger that is potent and affecting. We see here world of improvised explosives and demonstrations the same anger – and the same street war tactics – embroiling the Middle East today. This is a movie about how a terrorist is created and invigorated – about how arrogant and oppressive outside governments add fuel to the fire.

And it’s also a movie with an idea or two about how to douse those flames – that if forgiveness and understanding reign supreme, this poisonous cycle of blood-for-blood can finally come to an end.

by: Steven Snyder steven@zertinet.com, Published 2006-11-11