Trailer
Plot summary
James Gregory grew up on a South African farm, where he once posed for a photograph with a black boy called Bafana. As an adult he lives with his wife Gloria and their children Chris, Brett and Natasha, and he carries shame and regret about his past. Ridicule from other white South Africans has hardened him against Africans. He takes a job as a censor and guard at the high security prison holding Nelson Mandela. His duty is to read and block what prisoners write and receive, and to listen to their conversations with visitors. Around him, police and security officers brutalize civilians, including infants, and Gregory seeks to understand why Mandela became a rebel.
Cast
- Shiloh Hendersonas Brent Gregory
- Zikhona Mdaas Zenani Mandela
- Leslie Mongezias Walter Sisulu
- Faith Ndukwanaas Winnie Mandela
- Zingizile Mtuzulaas Raymond Mhlaba (as Zingi Mtuzula)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Color of Freedom (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's source, James Gregory's memoir Goodbye Bafana, was derided by Mandela's longtime friend and biographer Anthony Sampson, who accused Gregory of lying and of using Mandela's censored letters to fabricate a close relationship; Sampson said Mandela considered suing Gregory.
- The title word "Bafana" means "boys", and James Gregory's ability to speak Xhosa came from his childhood on a farm, where he had a black friend.
- The memoir the film was based on, James Gregory's Goodbye Bafana, was derided by Mandela's longtime friend Anthony Sampson, who in his book Mandela: the Authorised Biography accused Gregory of lying and fabricating a close relationship with the prisoner; Sampson said Mandela considered suing him.
- Nelson Mandela's own autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, calls James Gregory, his censor on Robben Island and later his warder, a welcome contrast to the typical warder: polished, soft-spoken and treating Winnie with courtesy and deference.
