Nelson Mandela Addresses the ‘Collapse’ of His First Marriage and Meeting Second Wife Winnie in New Documentary

Few public figures of the past 100 years have made as astounding a global impact as Nelson Mandela. The first democratically elected president of South Africa, Mandela was to his country what Martin Luther King Jr. was to the United States during roughly the same period of the 20th century.

But unlike King, who was assassinated in 1968, Mandela would live to see the realization of his dream. He saw the mountaintop, and after decades of struggle and meeting unyielding persecution with unshakeable strength, he reached it.

A new documentary examines the life of Mandela, who died in 2013, and tells his story in his own words. Troublemaker, directed by filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer), premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27.

The movie’s visuals comprise a mix of vintage photos, archival clips and stunning chiaroscuro animation, while audio recordings of Mandela’s interviews with former Time journalist Richard Stengel for Mandela’s 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom provide much of the soundtrack, accompanied by commentary from his fellow anti-apartheid activist Mac Maharaj, who is credited as a producer of the documentary.

Troublemaker covers all 95 years of Mandela’s life, from his childhood in the Eastern Cape, where he was born Rolihlahla Mandela in 1918, through his 27 years of imprisonment and eventual election as president of South Africa. It examines his evolution from a proponent of non-violence to a vocal defender of what he himself called “organized violence.”

The film also addresses his first two marriages, to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, to whom he was married from 1944 to 1958, and Winifred “Winnie” Madikizela.

His marriage to Evelyn began to crumble during his 1956 treason trial, which lasted four years. (He was acquitted in 1961.) “If I deal with Evelyn here, I’ll have to tell you our marriage really collapsed because of differences in politics,” Mandela says in Troublemaker‘s archival audio. “Her religion did not support political activity.”

He met Winnie during the treason trial. “I saw this woman,” he adds. “And I was struck by her beauty. And I took her out. And then I took her out a couple of times and then I proposed. But it was after the divorce.” When asked if she said yes, he answers, “Oh, she agreed.”

He then recalls a toast her father made to the newlyweds (but clearly directed at his daughter) during the wedding ceremony: “He said, ‘This is a man who is married to the struggle, and you must support him in that struggle. You must do what he’s doing if your marriage is going to last.’ ”

Winnie remained politically active throughout her husband’s imprisonment and was arrested a number of times. She was also criticized for encouraging violence against Black Africans who supported the Apartheid regime, complicating her legacy. Nelson and Winnie divorced in 1996, and he was married to Graca Simbine from 1998 until his death. Winnie died in 2018 at age 81.

The majority of the documentary focuses on Mandela’s efforts to liberate South Africa from White minority rule during the Apartheid era, which lasted from 1948 to 1994. During that period in South Africa, Blacks — who were the racial majority rather than the minority, unlike U.S. Blacks during the Jim Crow era — were regarded as separate and unequal second-class citizens and treated as such.

Troublemaker, named for the colloquial English translation of Mandela’s Xhosa birth name, documents the indignities and subhuman conditions Mandela endured at Robben Island, where he was sent after being convicted of sabotage in June of 1964 and sentenced to life in prison. (At the time, he was already serving five years following his 1962 arrest for leaving South Africa without a permit and organizing an illegal strike.) He remained at Robben Island until March 31, 1982, when he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.

While there, Mandela says in the documentary via the audio recordings, he was allowed one visitor and just one letter of no more than 1,500 words every six months. Prisoners were forced to work in the lime quarry under the harsh glare of the South African sun, sometimes permanently damaging their eyesight, which was the case for Mandela.

“The authorities used the prison system to psychologically damage you,” says Mandela, who was denied requests to attend the funerals of his mother, Nonqaphi Nosekeni, who died in 1968, and his eldest son Thembi, who died the following year.

In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became the final state president of South Africa under Apartheid, and the following year, Mandela was freed from prison. He continued his fight for equality as president of the African National Congress (ANC), and largely through his efforts, the first democratic presidential elections in South Africa were held in 1994.

Mandela, who received the Nobel Peace Prize along with de Klerk in 1993, served just one term as president, leaving office in 1999. He died on Dec. 5, 2013 at age 95.

The film includes footage of then-Senator Joe Biden denouncing apartheid in South Africa and what he called the country’s “puppet regime,” as well as singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who became a music superstar during the final years of Mandela’s imprisonment, performing “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution.” Shortly after his release, Mandela went to see Chapman in concert in England. “I’ve always been intrigued by that young lady, and when she came onstage I was real excited,” he says in the audio recordings.

“Amid recent global events,” director Fuqua, 60, tells PEOPLE, “working on Troublemaker with the remarkable Mac Maharaj and immersing myself in Mandela’s words and deeds has reminded me that the strongest spirits can weather the harshest storms, and that tomorrow is always another chance to make the world better.”

Troublemaker premieres Jan. 27 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will screen through Jan. 31.