[3][4] The lives of actors Muntu Ndebele and Norman Knox are dramatised in the 2011 unofficial sequel Canadian film, A Million Colours, directed by Peter Bishai and co-written with Andre Pieterse.
[1] It was the first feature film for director Ashley Lazarus (who had helmed documentaries previously) and television actress Karen Valentine.
[11] The revised version, according to Keyan Tomaselli of Cinéaste, "turned the well-paced pathos of a little black boy who sacrifices his life for his white friend into a soppy happy ending which negates the film's moral and racial parable.
[2] In June 1979, David Deneui of The Bellingham Herald gave the film 2½ stars, writing that "the simple story...could be entertaining family viewing.
"[12] In later years, film critic Leonard Maltin gave it the same rating in his Movie Guide, finding it "Entertaining, if a bit too sugar-coated".