Goodbye Bafana

Goodbye Bafana released on DVD in the United States as The Color of Freedom is a 2007 drama film, directed by Bille August, about the relationship between Nelson Mandela Dennis Haysbert and James Gregory Joseph Fiennes, his censor officer and prison guard, based on Gregorys book Goodbye Bafana Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend. The movie also explores the relationship of James Gregory and his wife as their life changes while Mandela is under Gregorys watch.

The young revolutionary Nelson Mandela is arrested, and it is the task of censor James Gregory to watch him. He has long since moved to South Africa with the family for his work in the prison of Robben Island, and slowly he clashes with the politics and racist culture of his countrymen and the people of his own race. Gregory begins to express hatred for South African apartheid. In time, Gregory challenges his superiors, and seeks to improve Mandelas life until he is released from prison after twentyseven years of imprisonment, and is elected president of South Africa.The autobiography the film was based on, Goodbye Bafana Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend, was derided by Mandelas longtime friend, the late Anthony Sampson. In Sampsons book Mandela the Authorised Biography he accused James Gregory, who died of cancer in 2003, of lying and violating Mandelas privacy in his work Goodbye Bafana. Sampson said that Gregory had rarely spoken to Mandela, but censored the letters sent to the prisoner and used this information to fabricate a close relationship with him. Sampson also claimed that other warders suspected Gregory of spying for the government, and that Mandela considered suing Gregory. ........

Source: Wikipedia