Cry Freedom, first minutes

The opening credits show us a South African slum named Crossroads, an illegal township near Cape Town. We are seeing this “town” through the eyes of a camera with a shutter. Everything seems to be peaceful, we are witnessing the every day’s life for these inhabitants. When suddenly, as the pace goes up a notch, armed police forces come to wreak havoc. As soon as the sound of their cars is heard, everyone starts to panic. These armed men show up unannounced, it’s open season. A fire is started, the improvised homes are burning. People are arrested. Women are raped.
Then, the scene takes place in the bedroom of a black woman. She is listening to an English-sided radio, bringing the news. She understands perfectly that the broadcast is bogus when she hears “There was no resistance to the raid, and many of the illegals voluntarily presented themselves to the police”. She is clearly familiar with these kind of lies.
We get one last shot at the slum. Everything is being burned and destroyed. All this commotion is followed by a song.
We come back to the woman, we learn that she works at a hospital. A nurse asks her about the morning’s events. She answers by implying the safety of a rather important person.
After, we transit to a meal scene with black people working with this woman. They argue about a certain Steve, that the incident beforehand might have led to his arrest. Someone named Peter Jones is close to Steve, his man would have contacted them because he has no pass problem. Steve, on the other hand, seems to have trouble with coming in and out of limited perimeter, he has most likely been banned.
We switch to antoher background, and the action goes to the office of a journalist, named Mr. Woods. He’s maybe even the editor as he arranges the headlines. A photographer comes in and brings him authentic pictures of the manslaughter. This journalist is ready to jeopardize himself and his paper to expose the truth. They exchange some words about Steve Biko, suggesting that he is a leader of some sort. This Woods thinks that Biko is driving black people hateful against the white community.
As soon as the article on Biko comes out, the black woman, who turns out to be Doctor Ramphele, comes barging in Woods’ office. She tries to explain that Biko is on the contrary “one of the few people who can still save South Africa”. She says that he is simply “uninformed”. She indicates Biko’s banning area, which is King William’s Town, and advises him to go see the man himself.