Invictus, a new Clint Eastwood-directed fable of South African reconciliation, is enthralling American critics as it marches toward at least one near-certain Oscar nomination — for Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. The movie tells of how the wise, kind and impishly inscrutable Mandela, newly elected, guided and cajoled his divided nation into coming together as one. It is a hopeful tale, an inspiring tale that we want so badly to believe in, even as we recognize its rendering of Mandela and South Africa as glaringly oversimplified. The movie is based on fact and, despite creative license, it is built on a sturdy foundation of truth: Mandela did begin to forge something of a national identity by using the unlikely vehicle of rugby, a sport much loved by South Africa's white minority and despised as a symbol of apartheid by South African blacks.

But lest anyone believe the country strolled from the rugby field and into the future holding hands and singing Kumbaya, I direct your attention to a story in today's New York Times.

Written by Barry Bearak, an old colleague from the L.A. Times (and a Pulitzer Prize winner), the story presents some sobering truths:

Fifteen years after South Africa was born anew as a multiracial democracy, most of the nation's whites still celebrate Dec. 16th as the Day of the Vow, "a covenant said to be made between their ancestors and God in 1838 that led to the slaughter of 3,000 Zulus," Bearak writes.

South African blacks long commemorated Dec. 16th as well, but for them it marked the start of armed struggle against apartheid in 1961.

After apartheid was dismantled and a new government elected in 1994, lawmakers kept Dec. 16 as a holiday, but they proclaimed it a Day of Reconciliation, "a time for all races to come together in the spirit of national unity." Much the same as they do at the end of Invictus.

But a new poll released last week found that 31 percent of whites do not think race relations have improved in the intervening 15 years. Sixteen percent of them think race relations are worse.

"Income inequality remains among the worse in the world," Bearak writes. "About 29 percent of blacks are unemployed, compared with 5 percent of whites, according to recent figures. When statistics include discouraged workers — dropouts from the labor force — the jobless rate climbs to nearly 50 percent."

Previously:

Mandela's long rugby fixation depicted in 'Invictus ' is 'poppycock,' says author

Clint Eastwood discusses 'Invictus'