Australia's Noyce looks at apartheid in "Catch a Fire"

NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) Australian director Phillip Noyce is bringing another real-life tale of an ordinary person's heroism to the screen in a new film he hopes will match the success of his critically acclaimed ''Rabbit Proof Fence.'' Oscar winner Tim Robbins and Derek Luke star in ''Catch a Fire,'' set in the early 1980s in apartheid-era South Africa.

It's the true story of Patrick Chamusso, an easy-going oil-refinery foreman who is wrongly accused of sabotage, and whose brutal torture at the hands of white policemen turns him into a militant for the African National Congress (ANC).

Noyce switched from making action blockbusters to movies with more of a social conscience such as 2002's ''Rabbit Proof Fence,'' the tale of three mixed-race Aboriginal girls who trek home through 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of Australian bush to escape captivity at a government-run settlement for half-caste children.

The film won numerous awards and a Golden Globe nomination in 2003.

''When I read the script (for ''Catch a Fire''), I thought 'Wow, here's another story ... about the greatness in so-called ordinary people,''' Noyce told reporters in New York.

'''Rabbit Proof Fence' was another similar story, but it was not the fact that our hero joins a struggle or decides that he's got to overthrow an oppressive political system, it was really the ending that the hero goes beyond the struggle to resolution of sorts,'' he said.

In ''Fire,'' Patrick, played by New Jersey native Derek Luke, is a devoted husband to his wife Precious, father to two little girls, and coach of a local boys' soccer team.

The son of a migrant worker from Mozambique, Patrick keeps his head down in the oppressive apartheid regime, and while resistance begins to build among many blacks, he remains apolitical.

CONTROVERSIAL ROLE FOR ROBBINS Robbins stars as Nic Vos, a white colonel in the country's Police Security Branch who struggles to maintain order in an increasingly volatile environment.

After an attack by the ANC's military wing in June 1980 on the Secunda oil refinery, Patrick wrongly comes under suspicion and he and Precious are arrested and tortured by Vos's henchmen.

The Chamussos are freed, but the brutality of their experience leaves Patrick so scarred, he can no longer remain neutral and abandons his family to join the exiled ANC in Mozambique.

Robbins delivers an icy portrayal of Vos as a man just doing his job. Much of his time on location was spent talking to former Security Branch officers.

''It wasn't pleasant,'' he said. ''I had to spend hours with (a former torturer) and I didn't like it. He kind of pissed me off at times and I had to hold on to that. It wasn't my job to admonish him.'' ''South Africa is so complex and I felt like my job was to try to find the humanity in this guy, who you would consider to be the evil guy,'' he said.

Patrick's plan for revenge goes awry and he is arrested and jailed on Robben Island, where he remains for 10 years along with other political prisoners including Nelson Mandela.

Ultimately, this is a film about forgiveness and reconciliation, said the real Patrick Chamusso, who was in New York and met with reporters.

''It is good to forgive someone. If you forgive someone, you really live in peace,'' he said.

The film will be released on October. 27.

REUTERS PDM RK0958