the film also attempts to explore unanswered questions, such as why prison officials tolerated the relationship for a full decade before blank and jacobsz were executed. (in an interview packaged with the dvd release, john greyson notes the real blank and jacobsz began their relationship when they were very young - blank having been imprisoned on robben island at age 16 - and were actually known to be a couple for twenty years before they were charged with sodomy and executed, when they were both nearly 40.) intentional anachronisms - such as transistor radios, electric typewriters and jeeps - are also used in the film to illustrate greyson's larger theme that homophobia and racism of the type that led to blank's and jacobsz' executions are still very much present in today's world. these twentieth-century objects, including modern (c. 1964) dress on many occasions, are invariably presented in juxtaposition with eighteenth-century items. the eighteenth-century prison commandant, for example, is replaced by a former subordinate, who wears a twentieth-century guard's uniform and is often accompanied by a fierce-looking alsatian on a short lead. a 'wetbag' is seen, as it was used as a torture devise in apartheid south africa.