The result was a personal, deep going and highly conflicted project that has been captured on film. The film will be presented by actor and associate artistic director of Global Arts Corps Nick Boraine at the DFL Africa Research Conference this November.

The film follows a group of South African actors, an American director and a legendary composer as they try to resurrect the “experiment in healing” before it disappears, as it did in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. From Northern Ireland to Rwanda and the Balkans the group enters conflict zones that are in the after-pains of genocide, violence and atrocity. In their belief, people who are divided by distrust and hate could start to listen to each other with the active help of the dramatic arts. During their journey across these torn countries the actors find that the play becomes a mirror where audience and performers confront their past through each other’s eyes. Unexpectedly through the work with their audiences, the actors start to wrestle with their own fears and hatred. A gap in the team begins to open up. The fragile reconciliation that has held them together is crumbling.

Truth in Translation is screening in Atlanta, Kabul, Winnipeg, New York, and Paris. Now for the first time, the film documentary of this extraordinary journey is being shown in South Africa – the place where the story originated. At a time when, in the eyes of many South Africans, the work of the TRC has lost much credibility, this film is a mind shattering and very real tale of how the arts was able to open up, challenge and build on the idea of truth and reconciliation.

Boraine, who has graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1994, has been involved in countless aspects of performing, writing and directing for stage, television, as well as film. Notable stage and film productions are Popcorn, Birdy, Promised Land, District 9, Paradise Stop and Truth in Translation. Boraine will present Truth in Translation at the Wits Main Theatre, University of the Witwatersrand, on Thursday, 21 November at 19:30. The preliminary "work in progress" screening forms part of the sixth Drama for Life Africa Research Conference and its theme 'The Unfinished Business of Truth and Reconciliation: Arts, Trauma and Healing'. Conference and Post Conference take place at Wits University and Soweto Theatre from Wednesday, 20 to Friday, 22 November. It features never-before-heard original music by jazz legend Hugh Masekela.

For more information, visit www.dramaforlife.co.za. Alternatively, visit the Facebook page or follow @drama_for_life on Twitter.