The Color of Friendship

The Color of Friendship is a 2000 television film based on actual events about the friendship between two girls; Mahree & Piper, one from the United States and the other from apartheid South Africa, who learn about tolerance and friendship. The film was directed by Kevin Hooks, based on a script by Paris Qualles, and stars Lindsey Haun and Shadia Simmons. Plot In 1977, Piper Dellums is a black girl who lives in Washington, D.C., with her father, Congressman Ron Dellums, an outspoken opponent of the South African apartheid system and the oppression of black South Africans, her mother Roscoe Dellums, and two younger twin brothers, Brandon and Erik. Piper, who has been taking an interest in the different nations of Africa, begs her parents to host an African exchange student. Meanwhile, in South Africa, Mahree Bok is a white South African who lives in a manor house with her parents and little brother Rian. They comfortably benefit from the system of apartheid without questioning its morality; Mahree's father, Pieter Bok, is a South African policeman who cannot hide his joy when Stephen Biko (a black South African man fighting against apartheid) has just been captured. They also have a black maid, Flora, whom Mahree considers her best friend, not realizing that Flora is not satisfied with her life under apartheid. Flora is a kindly woman who is friendly with the Bok children. Flora tells Mahree that when she was a little girl she would observe the weaver bird, which has many different styles of plumage, and its communal nest-building, which is used as a metaphor for the possibility of racial harmony that Mahree does not understand at the time. Mahree also asks her parents for permission to study in America, which is granted by her father, who believes she will either get homesick or realize that America is not a paradise. Upon meeting each other, both Mahree and Piper have misconstrued notions about each other's countries: Mahree does not think that there are black politicians, only knowing the patriarch of her host family is "Congressman Dellums", and although Piper is expecting a South African exchange student, she has not considered the possibility that the student would be a white African. Mahree reacts with horror bordering on panic when confronted with this new situation, and locks herself in Piper's bedroom when she is brought to the Dellums' home. Eventually, Piper picks the lock on the door to bring Mahree some fries and a chocolate shake.