Bopha!
| Bopha! | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Morgan Freeman |
| Written by | Brian Bird John Wierick |
| Produced by | Lawrence N. Taubman |
| Starring | Danny Glover |
| Cinematography | David Watkin |
| Edited by | Neil Travis |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates | September 17, 1993 |
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Language | English |
Bopha! is a 1993 drama film directed by Morgan Freeman and starring Danny Glover. It was adapted from a 1986 play by Percy Mtwa and was Freeman's directorial debut.
The film was released as a DVD in 2005. The DVD has a running-time of 114 minutes, 6 minutes less than the film.
Story
Glover plays Micah Mangena, a black police officer in South Africa during the apartheid era. Micah is tough but honest, and he genuinely believes he is doing the best for his people. His is a sergeant, with a white superior officer and in a mostly-black force. You see him training new recruits, all of them black.
His son Zweli Mangena is in a difficult position - Micah wants him become a police and follow his example. Zweli loves his father but has doubts about whether this is right.
Wider events are barely seen, though they obviously have an influence. In 1986, when the play was written, Nelson Mandela was still in prison. By 1993, when the film was released, he was free but the future was still very uncertain. Bopha says little about such matters. This is a conflict in a small township involving people the outside world would not have heard of.
The film is clearly hostile to Apartheid, but is willing to recognise that many decent people served the system. Danny Glover gives a splendid performance as a man who is utterly sincere and utterly mistaken.
Plot
The film opens with a black crowd burning alive a black man they regard as a traitor. It then switches to the peaceful home of Micah Mangena, a black sergeant in the South African Police Force.
His son Zweli Mangena increasingly questions Micah belief and Micah's wish that Zweli would follow him into the police. Micha's wife also has doubts as the once-peaceful township gets polarised and her neighbours start treating her as an enemy.
External links
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