The Power of One is a 1992 drama film directed and edited by John G. Avildsen, loosely based on Bryce Courtenay's 1989 novel of the same title.

He eventually finds a mentor in Karl "Doc" von Vollensteen, a lonely German musician whose family was executed by the Nazis.

A maturing PK begins to express sympathy towards black prisoners, who are detained under appalling conditions and frequently beaten and bullied by the Afrikaner guards, one of whom, Sgt.

While attending a boxing championship, he is enamoured by Maria Marais, the Afrikaans daughter of a leading National Party official.

Maria's father, incensed by the couple's ongoing relationship and PK's ties to a multiracial gym, leads him to request a formal investigation by one of his South African Police contacts, Colonel Breyten.

Maddened by grief, PK considers going to study at Oxford in England, but is consoled by a recovering Duma who shows him that all his teachings have finally shown progress and reminds him of all the good he can still do in Africa.

Now wanted fugitives from the apartheid government, PK and Duma together vow to continue a campaign against racial injustice with the aid of the other survivors.

PK's closing narration identifies meaningful voices during his life from his nanny to Doc, Geel Piet, Dabula Manzi, and finally Maria.

[2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two and a half stars out of four, stating that the nature of troubles of South Africa "are too complex to be reduced to a formula in which everything depends on who shoots who", but did add "there are some nice touches," such as the locations and Gielgud's performance.