Goodbye Bafana

A film set in South Africa and told from a warder's point of view. James Gregory is a white prison officer. He grew up with Black children and knows Xhosa; for that reason he is posted to the prison on Robben Island. His duty is set: he will read the letters, listen to the conversations and report. One of the prisoners in his charge is Nelson Mandela. Gregory starts the work with a settled conviction: these men are terrorists who want to destroy the order. The documents and letters he reads wear that conviction away. In time a ground for conversation forms between the two. Gregory has to hide the closeness; to his family, his colleagues and his superiors it is a betrayal. What the film is interested in is not politics but a man reconsidering what he thought he knew, and what that costs him. The narrative spreads over years; changes of prison, the family's moves and events outside pass in turn. The source is Gregory's own memoir. What it recounts was later disputed; some writers argued the relationship was not as close as the book presents, and the film inherited that argument. Joseph Fiennes plays Gregory, Dennis Haysbert plays Mandela and Diane Kruger his wife. Bille August directed. A suitable choice for anyone who likes recent historical drama. For a viewer expecting Mandela's own story, the film tells the events through the warder, and that choice was criticised. Who it is for: anyone who likes narratives of change and prison drama. Who it is not for: anyone after historical accuracy; the reliability of the source is disputed.