Goodbye Bafana (2007)

Director:

Bille August

Writers:

Bob Graham (book)
James Gregory (book)

Release Date:

11 April 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

Based on the memoirs of Nelson Mandela's prison guard

Plot:

GOODBYE BAFANA is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela. |

Plot Keywords:

Prison Cell | Husband Wife Reunion | 1990s | Political Prisoner | 1970s

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Joseph Fiennes	...	James Gregory
Dennis Haysbert	...	Nelson Mandela
Diane Kruger	...	Gloria Gregory
Shiloh Henderson	...	Brett Gregory
Patrick Lyster	...	Maj Pieter Jordaan
Faith Ndukwana	...	Winnie Mandela
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mehboob Bawa	...	Ahmed Kathrada
Garth Breytenbach	...	Jack Steyn
Adrian Galley	...	Brigadier Kemp
Warrick Grier	...	Vann Niekerk
Tyrone Keogh	...	Brent Gregory
Leslie Mongezi	...	Walter Sisulu
Sizwe Msutu	...	Cyril Ramaphosa
Terry Pheto	...	Zindzi Mandela
Matthew Dylan Roberts	...	National security agent (as Matthew Roberts)
Giulia Troiano	...	Voice Italian Version
Eduan van Jaarsveldt	...	Sgt Chris Brits

Also Known As:

Colore della liberta', Il (Italy)
Detenuto 46664 (Italy)
Goodbye Bafana (Germany)
The Color of Freedom (USA) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language including some sexual references.

Runtime:

140 min | France:118 min

Country:

Germany | France | Belgium | South Africa | Italy | UK | Luxembourg

Language:

English | Xhosa

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Taiwan:PG-12 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R | Sweden:11 | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 (TV rating) | Germany:6 | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Ireland:15A

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Banana Films

Soundtrack:

Ek Verlang Na Jou

Apartheid through the eyes of the "little people"

Joseph Fiennes has always looked a bit like a spider monkey in my view, but in this movie he was better than in any role I'd seen him in before, doing what I thought was a competent job with the South African accent as well. Finally exempted from having to play the sex symbol, Ralph's little brother could finally concentrate on actually challenging himself with a complex role. In a movie based upon a true story, Fiennes plays James Gregory, a racist South African guard whose certainties are nonetheless shaken to the core over the span of twenty years – the time he spends as Nelson Mandela's prison warden. The movie's merit lies largely in showing us the daily application of a major historic abomination – Apartheid – through the lives of "little people", those ordinary men and women of South Africa thanks to whom it was perpetuated. These are "ordinary" white people who are neither heroes nor villains, but obtuse conformists. The violence of the system on its white citizens was considerably more hidden than on its black ones, but it was violence all the same: it was the obligation to remain as ignorant as possible. The alternative was to be persecuted by the status quo.

Dennis Haysbert as Nelson Mandela was suitably stoic and charismatic, a positive counterpart to Forest Whitaker's villainous Idi Amin from The Last King of Scotland. Diane Kruger was definitely better cast as an "ordinarily" racist, suburban hairdresser wife and mother of two, than as Helen of Troy. By the end of Goodbye, Bafana, I was also somewhat moved. My major complaint with the movie was that like the vast majority of African-set, historical movies made recently, Nelson Mandela and all the black African characters were largely viewed from the outside, through the whiteys' eyes. These movies' directors all need to sit in a darkened room and watch The Battle of Algiers together sometime…