BOPHA!

US, 1993, 120 minutes, Colour.
Danny Glover, Malcolm Mc Dowell, Alfre Woodard, Marius Weyers, Maynard Eziashi, Malick Bowens.
Directed by Morgan Freeman.

Bopha! was made just before Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa. It was made in the transition period from apartheid to freedom in South Africa (and was filmed in Zimbabwe as South Africa was not available).

There were a number of films during the 1980s about apartheid in South Africa, coming from American film-makers including Cry Freedom and A Dry White Season. The South African Mapantsala was made at this time as well as a television movie about Nelson Mandela.

After 1994 a number of films have been made by the South Africans themselves as well as a number of films about South Africa including Goodbye Bafana and Catch a Fire, focusing Nelson Mandela as well as the anti-apartheid activists who were branded as terrorists.

This film was directed by Morgan Freeman, his only directorial work.

Danny Glover portrays a policeman in 1980, a time when black police were considered traitors to the cause. He wants to do the right thing, especially by his family, including his wife played by Alfre Woodard (who had played Winnie Mandela in the telemovie about the Mandelas). Maynard Eziashi is their son, caught up by the influence of the anti-apartheid activists. Malcolm Mc Dowell portrays the head of the Special Branch.

The material is familiar, but it is interesting to see a film that was made in 1993, immediately after the events that it portrays. It shows the human dilemma of those caught up in an unjust system.

1.Audience interest in South Africa? The apartheid era? Post-apartheid? The experience of the South African blacks? Whites? Struggles and prejudice?

2.1980, the townships, life in the townships? The perspective of the early 1990s?

3.The locations, the re-creation of the period, authentic, the townships, interiors? The musical score?

4.The title, the initial explanation, the use of the chant? Symbol?

5.Apartheid and its history? Racism? White superiority? Separation? The law and its oppression of the blacks? The reliance on security and security forces? The language of apartheid?

6.Danny Glover as Micah? As the focus of the film? The tyre killing? His family, the old school? With his boss, the training? The humiliation of the black police? Issues of information, raids, leniency and severity? His relationship with his son, his fears, his hopes for his son? The clash, the arrests? The security forces, de Villiers and his severity? Torture, killings, ‘suicides’? The consequences, the demonstrations, Rosie and her terror, the funeral, death? What Micah stood for?

7.Zweli, his pride, relationship with his father, mother, at home, the 1980s, at school, his girlfriend? The Afrikaaners? Sport? The meeting with the activist, the escape? The clash, his being shot, his father’s concern? The end – and the new Africa?

8.Rosie, as wife and mother, at home, her love, work, her fears, coming home and finding it disturbed, the end?

9.The boys, classes, employment, heroism? Silent opposition? Death?

10.The demonstrations, school, the funerals?

11.The leader and the caravan, the torture, his death?

12.Van Tonder, more sympathetic, his wife, the issue of suicides?

13.De Villiers, his character, snarling, security, superior, his henchmen? The choices, the lies, race issues? Torture?

14.The teacher, character, language?

15.Themes of injustice, oppression? Strategies for anti-apartheid movements? Terrorism? A world of anger?

16.The overcoming of apartheid – and the hopes in the 1990s?