The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife

Infobox Film | name = The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife


caption =
director = Nick Broomfield
producer = Riete Oord
writer =
starring = Nick Broomfield
Eugène Terre'Blanche
JP Meyer
Anita Meyer
music =
cinematography = Barry Ackroyd
editing = John Mister
distributor =
released = September 13, 1991
runtime = 85 min
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0146983

"The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife" is a feature-length documentary film about apartheid in South Africa, particularly Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder of the far-right organisation AWB. The film was made by Nick Broomfield and released in 1991.

Throughout the film, Broomfield attempts to set up an interview with Terre'Blanche, who stubbornly breaks all of the plans he makes with Nick.

For the majority of the film where Broomfield is unable to get an interview with the Leader himself, his attention is drawn to the driver and his wife (JP and Anita Meyer), hence the title (which alludes to the title of Peter Greenaway's 1989 film "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover").

Broomfield also spent time with a Town Councillor and diamond mine owner named Johann and his friend Anton. Broomfield had planned to interview Boervolk leader Piet Rudolph but when on the outskirts of Pretoria a news broadcast informed them that he'd been arrested, Rudolph was a fugitive wanted in connection with the theft of some arms from an SA Defence Force base located in Pretoria.

The film spawned a multi-million libel lawsuit by Jani Allan. Allan objected to her representation in the film and the statements made regarding her association with Eugene Terre'Blanche.

When Broomfield left South Africa after the making of the first film, he received a death threat from JP Meyer, stating that if Broomfield returned to South Africa he would be killed. Broomfield subsequently returned to make a follow-up documentary, "His Big White Self", which was premiered in February 2006.

The documentary was released in the UK as a DVD boxset, together with "His Big White Self", in April 2006.

External links

* [http://www.nickbroomfield.com/theleader.html The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife] official website