In Goodbye Bafana, Gregory (Joseph Fiennes) is a prison guard who gets a big break in 1968 when he’s assigned to Robben Island with two specific tasks: to read and censor the prisoners’ mail; and to keep a special eye on Nelson Mandela (24 star Dennis Haysbert). Gregory speaks African language Xhosa, having grown up in the countryside with no other white boys around.
As the initially ill-informed Gregory has his assumptions challenged by Mandela, and grows to respect and admire his prisoner, he finds himself rejected by his own people. But with international pressure mounting on the South African government, Mandela and his fellow detainees receive progressively better treatment, and Gregory is needed once again to supervise the star prisoner.
From that description, you might be ready to dismiss Goodbye Bafana as dated and misguided. And you might also be sceptical about the posh English Fiennes, who is coming off an eight-year post-Shakespeare In Love career slump, playing a lower-middle-class Afrikaner. If either of those apply, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the film. Fiennes, especially, really convinces in this unlikely role. If you are willing to submit to a story that has plenty of power to manipulate your emotions, you’ll find it a moving experience. In other words: don’t fight the feeling.
Goodbye Bafana is out in cinemas on 11 May.
Read Dan Williams' article on western filmmakers and African politics >>>
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