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Project Detail

Goodbye Bafana

Synopsis

James Gregory, a typical white Afrikaner who regarded blacks as sub-human, grew up on a farm in the Transkei where he learned to speak Xhosa at an early age. This made him an ideal choice to become the warder in charge of Mandela and his comrades on Robben Island. Gregory could speak their language. He could spy on them without them knowing it. But the plan backfired. Through Mandela’s influence, Gregory’s allegiance gradually shifted from racism to support of Mandela’s quest for a democratically free South Africa.
 
Goodbye Bafana tracks the unlikely but profound relationship that developed between these two men. Through this unique friendship we witness Gregory’s growing awareness of man’s inhumanity to man, paralleled by the remarkable story of South Africa’s evolution from the fascism of Apartheid to a vibrant democracy in which Mandela played the pivotal role, becoming the most inspirational political figure of the modern world.

The story poses some extraordinary questions: Who is the prisoner? And who, in the end, sets who free? It’s about two men from totally opposite and conflicting backgrounds who bond in the face of impossible odds.

Details

Year
2008
Type of project
Features
Running time
140 mins
Format
35mm
Director
Bille August
Producer
Makar Kozhuhov
Editor
Herve Schneid
Screenwriter
Greg Latter, Bille August based on a novel by James Gregory and Bob Graham
Director of Photography
Robert Fraisse
Production Designer
Tom Hannam
Principal cast
Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert, Diane Kruger

Genre

Drama

Categories

Fiction

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Banana Films

Arsam International

X Filme Creative Pool

Future Film

Film Afrika

Fonema

Sales Company

Celluloid Dreams

2 Rue Turgot
75009 Paris
France

T +33 1 49 70 03 70

info@celluloid-dreams.com

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