“The Forgiven” Starring Forest Whitaker & Eric Bana Hits Theaters March 9

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter said she hopes a new movie about her father’s crusade for reconciliation following Apartheid’s end in South Africa helps shine a light on the real heroes in our everyday lives.

“The Forgiven” follows Archbishop Tutu in his work as chairman of then President Nelson Mandela’s “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” just after Apartheid was abolished in the 1990s. Tutu – played by an unrecognizable Forest Whitaker – teams up with a hardened, racist prisoner and former secret policeman (Eric Bana) to solve the murder of a young woman.

“What I hope viewers take away from the film is the incredible courage of so many South Africans who are nameless,” Mpho Tutu told BOSSIP. “These were ordinary people who have had an extraordinary generosity of spirit and openness of heart.”

She added: “It doesn’t take a a gold star or a recognizable face or a well known name in order to be a hero. Ordinary people perform extraordinary acts of heroism every day.”

The movie is filled with lots of those kinds of moments, where South Africans were trying to reconcile with the past, and yet move forward without bitterness.

“It’s people who have the generosity to forgive, the courage to hope and the faith to persevere who can make our world a better place, where it can be a place of hope an a better opportunity for tomorrow,” Mpho Tutu said.

Mpho Tutu told us that although her family didn’t have any involvement in crafting the script, she said the director Roland Joffé asked Archbishop Tutu for his blessing before they began production.

Archbishop Tutu, his daughter said, found the movie to be a “work of art.”

“I know that the anti-apartheid struggle feels like it’s in the distant past, but the people who make the state of a new South Africa, are people who are part of our living memory,” she said. “They are our real legends and heroes of today.”