Bafana was Grigori's childhood friend. He taught Grigory to speak their language and a special martial art. Grigori was the best choice to guard Mandela and his comrades because of his language advantage. During Mandela's long, nearly thirty years in prison, Grigory became an important, irreplaceable character, and ultimately had an emotion beyond friendship.
I love historical dramas enough to watch the entire film in one sitting, and I can say without hesitation that I am overall very satisfied. The title of the film is not stupid enough to use a name as straightforward as "Goodbye, Mandela" without the slightest merit. For Grigory and others who don't want to see unequal treatment and can't stand inhuman treatment, Bafana is a bright spot in their hearts. Grigory was not a man who preached equality and pursued freedom from the beginning. He was also a nameless jailer who was very rude to black prisoners. Relying on his language advantage, Mandela was under the tight control of the South African government at the time. The moment that really awakened him, I believe, was her daughter's question. They saw police brutally arrest undocumented blacks and forcibly separate a mother and a baby on the street that day. Her daughter, Natasha, was horrified, and she didn't understand why those police officers had the power to separate a mother from her child while his father remained indifferent.
Life with Bafana begins to emerge, Grigori opens the box of treasures that Bafana had given him, and his heart is shaken. In order to get to know Mandela and his people correctly, he stole the Freedom Charter, which was strictly forbidden at the time. It was not a document threatening to exterminate white people, but a pursuit of a free and friendly country. Grigori believes that he and his children will be as friendly as they were when he was a child with another Bafana.
Many historical films focus on describing history, and characters like Mandela like to exaggerate the suffocating charisma of this historical figure. In fact, no matter what kind of characters, they are just following the wheel of history that cannot stop. For a huge history, an unpredictable and in-depth concept of time, it is obviously much smarter to give up the individual and use the pen and ink more on human nature and inevitable trends.
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