A Dry White Season (1989)

A Dry White Season (1989)

A grizzly portrait of the cruel brutality of apartheid in 70s South Africa

7.2

Movie

United States of America
Afrikaans, English, Zulu
Drama, Mystery
1989
EUZHAN PALCY, FEMALE DIRECTOR
David de Keyser, Donald Sutherland, Ernest Ndhlovu
107 min

What it's about

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

The take

Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a patriarch of an upper-class white family insulated from the roiling protests and violence in their suburban household outside of Johannesburg. When his gardener’s son is arrested, du Toit’s complacency is tested and he becomes embroiled in the devastating political reality outside the comforts of his gated world. 

Although it falls into the somewhat blemished category of films that center white protagonists when covering Black struggle, it does so with a piercing critical lens that confronts white denial and complicity. Euzhan Palcy’s direction is striking, depicting racism and violence with uncompromised clarity, while her unfettered dedication to getting this made even brought Marlon Brando out of retirement. Keep an eye out for him playing a beleaguered civil rights attorney - a role which notched him his final Academy Award nomination. 

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