MOVIES : South Africa, Take 2 : What happens when Bruce Beresford brings ‘A Good Man in Africa’ to the country as the first post-cultural embargo film

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Late on a recent chilly autumn night, Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford faced a mob of black South African actors preparing to burn the Union Jack.

“OK,” Beresford said, patiently imparting a few spare words of direction for the scene in his new comedy, “A Good Man in Africa.” “You burn the flag and then you go on chanting.”

But, to Beresford’s surprise, one of the South African extras objected. “No, sir,” he said, “when we burn flags, we always stamp and whistle.”

“I didn’t realize there was a protocol for this,” the director said.

“Oh, yes,” replied the extra. “You’ve got to get it right.”

So the director of the Oscar-winning “Driving Miss Daisy” gracefully bowed to the wisdom of his extras, men who learned civil disobedience in South Africa’s roiling townships and not in acting schools or on sound stages. “They just did what they always did,” Beresford said later, chuckling at the memory. “It’s great having a mob that knows what to do.”

Working on location in South Africa certainly has its advantages. But it also has posed a few problems for “A Good Man in Africa,” the first major international film to be shot here since the cultural boycott of Pretoria ended two years ago.

The $20-million film, to be distributed by Universal’s Gramercy Pictures, is based on William Boyd’s novel of the same name. It stars Australian actor Colin Friels as Morgan Leafy, a hapless British diplomat, and features an ensemble cast that includes Sean Connery as a Scottish doctor, John Lithgow as a British ambassador, Louis Gossett Jr. as a corrupt African foreign minister and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as his wife.

During the three-month shoot, which is about to wrap, producers have had to grapple with a few unexpected obstacles. National political protest strikes shut down the set for two days, causing division between black crew members who wanted to join the strike and white South Africans who wanted to keep working.

“Lloyd’s (of London) was hysterical,” said producer Mark Tarlov, who presented the insurance company with a $120,000 bill, which it eventually paid, for the lost time.

Then there were the lingering economic sanctions against South Africa, which forced producers to buy their Kodak film at premium prices through an intermediary, and 10 days of nationwide riots and protests that followed the April 10 assassination of black leader Chris Hani by a white man.

“It’s all been a bit of a worry,” Beresford admitted. “It might’ve been better, with all the tension here, to have shot the film elsewhere.”

During the early days of shooting, three black robbers were killed by police at a grocery store next to the Sandton Sun, the luxury hotel in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs where most of the crew is staying. And one black protest march, watched by armed white right-wing extremists, passed within a hundred yards of the house where lead actor Friels and his 5-year-old son, Jack, were staying.

Just reading the letters to the editor columns of the local paper was enough to curl Beresford’s already curly hair. “I don’t think I’d ever encountered real right-wingers,” he said. “You read those letters and it’s really quite scary. If I put that stuff into a script, nobody would believe it.”

To be sure, South Africa is one of the most violent countries in the world these days. The murder rate in Johannesburg is higher than in Washington. The level of political tension is high too, with township violence and the latest round of labored black-white negotiations creating a pervasive feeling of uncertainty.

Most of the political turmoil, though, is centered in the townships, far from the set. And, except for work stoppages and the morning headlines, the cast and crew have been isolated from the trouble, as are most white South Africans.

“We’re not trying to teach anybody lessons about Africa,” said Tarlov, who is producing the picture with his partner, John Fiedler, of their New York-based Polar Entertainment. “This film is not political. It’s a comedy. But to come here and not be doing a movie about apartheid was something of a revelation to people here. Everybody comes here so dead-on serious.”

Indeed, “A Good Man in Africa” is a comedy, adapted for the screen by Boyd from his sharply funny novel of post-colonial Africa. Friels plays Leafy, a hapless, hard-drinking 35-ish British diplomat stuck in Nkongsamba, capital of the fictional West African country of Kinjanja.

Leafy labors painfully under Arthur Fanshawe (Lithgow), the spineless British High Commissioner who despises Africa and Africans with rich colonial disdain and longs for a posting in Washington or Paris. Fanshawe’s dream, though, depends on his ability to ingratiate himself to Sam Adekunle (Gossett), the suave Kinjanjan foreign minister.

Gossett’s Adekunle, with his shaved head, dark sunglasses, Savile Row suits and gold Rolex watch, reeks of political power (not to mention ill-gotten gains) and the British are deeply intimidated by him.

Not quite by accident, Leafy falls into bed with Celia (Whalley-Kilmer), Adekunle’s supremely unhappy British wife. When Adekunle discovers their indiscretion, he forces Leafy into a plot to bribe Alex Murray (Connery), a doctor of high moral principles who holds the key vote in a development project that could make Adekunle millions.

Leafy’s life is further complicated when the British ambassador’s wife, Chloe, played by Diana Rigg, develops a crush on him.

Although Beresford’s breakthrough film, “Breaker Morant,” was set in South Africa, the director had never been to the country before. He had, however, spent two years in the 1960s working in Nigeria and had returned there a few years ago to work with Boyd on the drama “Mr. Johnson.”

For several years, Beresford had wanted to do a film based on “A Good Man.” But the major studios were reluctant to sponsor the project, worrying that the film would be a small English comedy without broad American appeal. When Beresford, Boyd and producer Tarlov assembled their cast of well-known actors, though, the financiers changed their minds.

“I just thought it was a terribly funny book,” Beresford said. “And I thought it was about time someone made a movie about post-colonial Africa. That is something that hasn’t been dealt with in a major film.”

Of all of the novels written about post-colonial Africa, Boyd’s 1981 book is perhaps the best known. The Washington Post described it as a “wildly funny novel, rich in witty prose and raucous incidents.” The author, who lives in London, knows the continent well, having been born in Ghana in 1952. His father, a Scottish doctor, was the model for Connery’s role as Dr. Alex Murray.

Among the author’s seven screenplay credits are Richard Attenborough’s “Chaplin” and “Tune In Tomorrow.” Although Boyd has written five novels, two of which have won Booker Prizes, he has yet to create a commercially successful adaptation of his own work.

“A Good Man in Africa” is arguably the best of Boyd’s books, capturing, as few other novels have, the cultural clash between the stuffy, vaguely racist British diplomatic corps and the inhabitants of the Empire’s former colonies in Africa.

“Will’s books are not terribly difficult to film, but they can get ruined in the execution,” Tarlov said. However, the producer believes Beresford’s steady hand and musical approach to filmmaking made him the perfect choice for “A Good Man.”

“Going to dailies on this film is like going to a great film every night,” Tarlov said.

The success of the book and the presence of Beresford at the helm were the main draws for the top-flight cast.

“It’s one of my favorite comedic books,” said Lithgow, who had become friends with Beresford last year during a vacation in Tuscany. When offered the role of Fanshawe, he said, “I jumped at the opportunity.

“The great thing about Bruce is he loves making films,” Lithgow said. “Most directors are caught up in making a successful film. But Bruce just wants to make fine films. Of course, I want to make a killing too.”

Lithgow talked with several British diplomats to prepare for his role as the prototypical Englishman. But he says he found them too outrageous to mimic. One diplomat spent the entire session with Lithgow tapping a short, knobbed stick on himself. Lithgow considered adopting that mannerism, “but you couldn’t do it because people wouldn’t believe it,” Lithgow said, laughing.

Lithgow spends much of this film in a three-piece Navy suit and English-made Panama hat, the stuffy attire that makes many British diplomats appear so out of place in Africa.

“Your temptation is to make a caricature,” Lithgow said. “But Bruce said ‘play it straight’ and he was right. A character actor walks through life and constantly has this problem. If you do half of what you see on the street, nobody would believe it was real.”

Although set in independent Africa, most of the African characters fit two prototypes--the corrupt, Western-educated demagogue or the servants who speak fractured English but are wiser than their dimwitted masters.

During casting, Beresford said he encountered some resistance from African-American actors, who worried that playing a ruthless African power-broker wouldn’t be politically correct. Others, though, said it was about time the truth about many of Africa’s dictators was told.

Gossett saw the role as both realistic and challenging. “The truth is the truth. That’s the way I look at it,” he said. “If African-Americans think it is bad, they don’t see the whole picture.”

Some may question Beresford’s decision to cast Colin Friels for a leading role sought by many better-known actors. Beresford cast Friels only after Connery, Lithgow and most of the rest of the actors were signed. “Bruce was a master at waiting everybody out,” Tarlov said.

Friels is the husband of Judy Davis, an Oscar nominee this year for her supporting role in “Husbands and Wives.” His limited work in American films included the role of a villainous attorney in “Class Action,” starring Gene Hackman.

In Boyd’s novel, Kriel’s character is an anti-hero--an overweight, bored, amoral, ambition-less and oversexed man who drinks too much.

“It’s very hard to find people in their 30s who look like Morgan in the book,” Beresford said. “What I really had to capture was his attitude, his disillusionment, his bitterness about being stuck in a backwater. And Colin was perfect.”

Friels observed that “I love Leafy. It’s great to play him because you can draw on all the terrible things that have happened to you. He’s quite bright, just lacking in character.”

When Beresford called him for the part, Friels said, “he said he had a terrific script that Kenneth Branagh couldn’t do.” Friels admits that the film “has a nobody in the lead.” But, he added, “this is the best role I’ve ever had.”

Shooting in South Africa turned out to be more difficult than Beresford or the producers had expected. Beresford was able to find locations, in a township near Pretoria and at a home for wayward youth in Johannesburg, that were reminiscent of the steamy capitals of West Africa.

But the weather here has been cool, as is typical in a Southern Hemisphere autumn at an altitude of 5,500 feet. Beresford has had to work to keep actors’ breath from appearing on film in night shoots and makeup artists have been constantly spreading petroleum jelly on Friels’ face to make him look sweaty.

South Africa appears, on the surface, to be a country where everything works, and, indeed, such things as the hotels and telephone communications system are among the best on the continent. But South Africa’s long economic isolation has taken a toll.

“Some of the things that are never a problem are a problem here,” Tarlov said. Getting film was one problem. Kodak wouldn’t provide film directly to the company, because it was operating in South Africa. Cameras were another. Although Panavision had recently returned to the country, local crews were not familiar with the equipment.

“You can go to Hungary, Czechoslovakia, even Tibet, and these are not problems,” Tarlov added. “The only problem there is money. Here they have had money, but they couldn’t get anything because of sanctions.”

The producers have adopted a low profile for the shoot, eschewing most local publicity. “We haven’t wanted to draw attention to ourselves,” Tarlov said, “because we didn’t want to become a political target.”

Although the actors haven’t always felt safe, they say they’ve relished the chance for a close-up look at South Africa, which is a far more complex place than the usual televised scenes of rioting and mayhem might suggest. “It’s been fascinating and terrifying at the same time,” Lithgow said. “You have to come here to understand it.”

However, the actors haven’t gotten as clear a view of the country as they’d like, being cloistered in a hotel attached to one of South Africa’s fanciest shopping malls.

“I’ve never been on a location where you felt so much like you were on a luxury ocean liner,” Lithgow said. “This mall was invented for white South Africa. All your needs can be met without ever having to venture out into the cold, cruel world. I’ve never seen so many malls or so many locked gates. It’s very disheartening about the human condition.”

South Africans have been particularly fascinated with Gossett, with his Brooklyn-accented English and his ready smile. “People have treated me very well,” Gossett said. “They’ve invited me into their homes--a large number of them, both black and white. It’s been a very pleasant surprise.”

Gossett said he plans to encourage other African-American actors to come to South Africa, and he has some ideas for future film deals here. But even though he hasn’t experienced racism first hand here, he knows that he has been treated differently by South African whites because he’s an American.

“When I walk into a room, I get mean stares sometimes,” Gossett said. “Then I hear people say, ‘He’s that American actor,’ and everybody relaxes. Getting things right in this country is going to be difficult.”