Three years after the death of Bafana Bafana’s legendary coach Clive Barker, his son John is sharing the deeply personal story of his father’s final years in a moving new documentary, Hearts Remember.
The documentary marks the first time John Barker has publicly spoken at length about his father’s battle with Lewy body dementia, the devastating condition that gradually robbed the man who guided South Africa to its historic 1996 Africa Cup of Nations triumph of his health and independence.
Clive Barker died in June 2023 at the age of 78 after a prolonged illness, leaving behind an extraordinary football legacy that included leading Bafana Bafana to their only AFCON title on home soil and securing qualification for South Africa’s first FIFA World Cup in 1998.
In Hearts Remember, John recalls the emotional toll of watching his father deteriorate after his diagnosis, describing the experience as frustrating and heartbreaking for the entire family. According to John, the illness slowly changed the man South Africans knew as a charismatic football mastermind into someone battling memory loss and confusion.
The documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul Modjadji, explores dementia and ageing through the experiences of South Africans living with the condition and the loved ones caring for them. Barker’s story forms one of its emotional centrepieces, alongside those of dementia advocate Marinda Breedt, influencer Nduduzo Kay and his grandmother Zithi Elisabeth Khoza, as well as veteran actresses Abigail Kubeka and Lillian Dube.
For John, making the documentary was about ensuring South Africans understood why one of the country’s greatest football coaches quietly disappeared from public life.
“The country deserved to know why he wasn’t coaching anymore,” he says in the film, hoping that sharing his father’s journey will also help raise awareness about dementia and the challenges faced by families caring for loved ones with the disease.
Hearts Remember has already premiered at the Human Rights Film Festival in Johannesburg before being showcased at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London, bringing Clive Barker’s story to a global audience. The film highlights not only the realities of dementia but also the compassion, resilience and love required to care for those living with the condition.
John, himself an acclaimed filmmaker behind productions including Bunny Chow and The Umbrella Men, has also been documenting his father’s football legacy through the upcoming docuseries Class of ’96: Rise of a Nation, which revisits Bafana Bafana’s unforgettable AFCON-winning campaign.
While Clive Barker will forever be remembered as the coach who inspired a newly democratic South Africa with one of its greatest sporting achievements, Hearts Remember offers a different perspective, that of a devoted father and husband whose final years were defined not by trophies, but by the unwavering support of his family.
