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Plot
summary: South Africa - 1968 Twenty-five million
blacks are ruled by a minority of four million whites under
the brutal Apartheid regime of the Nationalist Party
Government. Black people have no vote, no land rights, no
rights to freedom of movement, to own a business, to housing or education. Determined
to retain power, whites ban all black opposition organizations, forcing
their leaders into exile or imprisoning them for life on
Robben
Island.
James Gregory, a typical white
Afrikaner, regards blacks as sub-human. Having grown up on a
farm in the Transkei, he learned to speak Xhosa at an early
age. This makes him an ideal choice to become the warder in
charge of Mandela and his comrades on Robben Island. After
all, Gregory speaks their language and can spy on them.
However, the plan backfires. Through Mandela’s influence,
Gregory’s allegiance gradually shifts from the racist
government to the struggle for a free South Africa. Goodbye
Bafana tracks the unlikely but profound relationship between these two men. Through their unique friendship,
we witness not only Gregory’s growing awareness of man’s inhumanity
to man, but South Africa’s evolution from Apartheid to a
vibrant
democracy.
The story, which documents how
Mandela became the most inspirational political figure of the
modern world, poses the questions: Who is the prisoner? And
who sets whom free? |
