Joseph, Ralph Fiennes's little brother, is full of charm and sense of humour. He was in Berlin to promote Goodbye Bafana by Danish director Bille August.

Discovered almost ten years ago with Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, Joseph Fiennes took some time before he started to find more remarkable roles. Screened in competition on Sunday evening in Berlin, Goodbye Bafana is one of them...

"It's the type of role I look for. Now that I'm well into my 30s, I finally feel that I'm getting offers that interest me more than ten years ago. Shakespeare in Love opened many doors to me, it was an incredible experience but it also limited my choices in a way. It has taken me years to learn to refuse always the same romantic roles that I was being offered before. I have a lot of freedom in theatre, I would like to have that freedom also on film. I have a very comfortable life, I don't do this for the money but for passion, for the challenge. Sometimes I fail and when that's the case, I get back on my feet and fail even better. That's why I turn down a lot of pop-corn movies or action films. For me, there is no challenge in acting in front of a green screen..."

In this Belgian co-production by Danish director Bille August, the British actor plays the main character of South African James Gregory, Nelson Mandela's white prison warder for over 20 years. It is a difficult role. "I have no sympathy for a regime which treated 20 million black people in such a terrible way in their own country. Intellectually, I can try to understand, to go back 300 years. But the key to play James Gregory was family. It was the only way for me to like him and feel sympathy for him. He has a wife, two children, he wants them to have a home, food on the table, a car, two television sets... These people who worked in prisons weren't Einsteins, they weren't great intellectuals. James took almost 27 years to realise that the man he was watching was a lawyer, a teacher, that, finally, maybe he was someone fighting for freedom. Gregory takes time to stop reacting with his gut and starting to use his head. The situation in South Africa was very complex. Many white people have a peculiar relationship with black people. 200 or 300 years ago, many babies were breastfed by black women; 36 per cent of the white population have no idea that they do have black blood, sometimes they are even more black than they are white. White children spent more time with black children, they learned the language, they played stick-figthing... It was a totally crazy situation because, at the same time, white people didn't allow black people to have any power. They protected their families and their religion..."

Revealing Africa

This is not the first time Joseph Fiennes comes to Berlin. He was here two years ago for Man to Man by Régis Wargnier, which already tackled the relationship between the West and Africa. "For a while there was a focus on Central America and South America, with films like Amores Perros, Y tu mamá también or City of God. Now this is changing with films like The Constant Gardener, Blood Diamond... Africa is the playground to several governments and industries, and this has happened for years. You just have to look at the conflicts over diamonds and petrol... You pay your taxes, a part goes to the International Monetary Fund, which has projects to get the petrol from Angola, where people have absolutely nothing. African people don't get to touch anything that comes from the exploitation of their countries! Like it or not, we are connected to what happens in Africa. We have to be aware that we are partly responsible for the misery and poverty of these countries' people. So it is quite normal that cinema starts to take an interest."

Joseph Fiennes will soon turn 37, he seems to have gotten to the age of maturity and he doesn't have regrets... not even after turning down The Pianist. "Even if The Pianist hadn't had so much success, I would have regretted not making it because I loved my meetings with Roman Polanski. But I was already committed to a classical play. It would have been wonderful to be able to do both. But we cannot live in regret..."