Springbok captain Siya Kolisi premiered his much-anticipated documentary Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story to VIP guests including A-listers Zakes Bantwini and Nandi Madida at Montecasino in Fourways, Johannesburg – a day after screening it to his home township of Zwide in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.

The 31-year-old rugby player stepped out on the red carpet in a MaXhosa Africa get-up and jokingly parodied politician Zizi Kodwa’s infamous viral moment “But I just arrived”, winning members of the press over as cameras flashed away.

Zakes Bantwini told Sowetan S Magazine on the red carpet that he was getting ready to jet off to America tonight ahead of the Grammy awards on Sunday, where he is nominated in the category Best Global Music Performance with Nomcebo Zikode and Wouter Kellerman.

After the red carpet, invited guests took their seats in the cinema, with SuperSport presenter Motshidisi Mohono welcoming them to the dimly lit theatre.

Then Kolisi’s face appeared on the big screen, before the audience were captivated by his story of triumph and the childhood traumas he faced coming from a disadvantaged background. In one pivotal scene, the audience were left astound by a scene depicting the pit toilet he used while growing up.

Other highlights from the documentary include how witnessing the death of his grandmother, who raised him, affected him. The documentary also zooms in on the domestic abuse Kolisi’s mother faced and the hardships of growing up with an absent father. As a kid longing for belonging and having to fend for himself in the township, Kolisi turned to alcohol at the age of nine, something he struggled with until his teenage years.

Hopeless and frustrated about his life in the hood, Kolisi found courage in his favourite sport, rugby, which he started to hone. The documentary also shows his love story with his wife Rachel and the couple’s struggle with infidelity issues.     

“I want my documentary to bring a little bit of hope, especially with all that is happening in the country right now… people are losing that hope and I just want to reignite that again,” said Kolisi.

“The biggest thing about me is that I never want people to see me as this ‘perfect’ person because I am nowhere near that.

“I’ve faced so many challenges, not just in sports but in my personal life. I’ve made so many mistakes and you’ll see it raw as it is in my documentary. It talks about some of the failures I’ve had, some of the people I’ve hurt along the way, and how I had to work to gain their trust back.”