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Jail Caesar (aka String Caesar) is a feature film that tells the timeless story of an
adolescence shaped by social and political events. It charts a young man’s impassioned
quest for power, for the meaning of freedom and to know himself, to live his dreams, and
achieve his ambitions. The film explores his struggle to survive by becoming a power
broker, a manipulator and then a dictator -- the genesis of a powerful man, with roots in
politics, violence, and gang warfare.
The story, shot in three of the most notorious prisons in the world, uses both acclaimed
actors and actual inmates incarcerated in these prisons to reenact the tale of a
young Julius Caesar. As the film’s producer explains the script to one of the inmates
upon discussing the idea to use an actual prison as the setting to cast the film - “Not
Shakespeare….not Shakespeare’s older Caesar, but the young one full of piss and vinegar.”
Many inmates are serving life without parole, imprisoned for drugs, violence, and murder,
so getting them to cooperate is one of the many challenges the producer and director
face. The prisons are a microcosm of the real world where drugs, sexual liaisons, gangs,
deals, allegiances, fear, anger and fleeting happiness are normal, everyday cyclical
elements.
Original Release
06/28/2012
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Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Derek Jacobi | Sulla |
John Kani | Marius |
Warren Adler | Caesar |
Peter John Christiaans | Cicero |
Richard Clifford | Marcus Thermus |
Gunter Singer | The Swooper |
Vaneshran Arumugam | Cinna |
Grethe Fox | Nicopolis |
Bo Petersen | Aurelia |
Denwor Ohlson | Mr. O |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Derek Jacobi | Sulla |
John Kani | Marius |
Warren Adler | Caesar |
Peter John Christiaans | Cicero |
Richard Clifford | Marcus Thermus |
Gunter Singer | The Swooper |
Vaneshran Arumugam | Cinna |
Grethe Fox | Nicopolis |
Bo Petersen | Aurelia |
Denwor Ohlson | Mr. O |
Rameez Amerdien | Mettulus Pius |
Sibongile Balfour | Aemilia |
Mike Barter | Juggler |
Aletta Bezuidenhout | Julia |
Jim Burbidge | Prison Officers |
Robert Byneveldt | Cicero's Rappers |
John Peter Christians | Cicero |
William Close | Earth Harp |
Deon Coetzee | Cicero's Rappers |
Wayne Cresswell | Prison Officers |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Colin Cowie | Executive Producer |
Kweku Mandela | Executive Producer |
Martyn Naylor | Executive Producer |
Keith Northrop | Executive Producer |
Alice Krige | Producer |
Paul Schoolman | Producer |
Warren Adler | Producer |
Eda Lishman | Producer |
Sahil Gill | Producer |