A small essay on the film "Cry, the Beloved Country".
Cry, The Beloved Country
The film, Cry, The Beloved Country, is directed by Darrell James
Roodt, produced by Anant Singh, written by Ronald Harwood and
Joshua Sinclair, and stars James Earl Jones as Stephen Kumalo and
Richard Harris as James Jarvis. The film does a generally good job
at illustrating the concepts and themes present in the novel, and
makes for a fairly enjoyable and bittersweet viewing
experience.
The film, which takes place in two of the not-so-beautiful parts
of South Africa, Ndotsheni and Johannesburg, follows the similar
journeys of Stephen Kumalo, a black pastor of modest means, and
James Jarvis, a wealthy white man living above Ndotsheni. Kumalo is
forced to travel to Ndotsheni after receiving a letter from a
fellow pastor, Theopius Msimangu, regarding the 'illness' of his
sister, Gertrude (which turns out the be no more than a habit for
bad behaviour). While in Johannesburg, Kumalo also plans to search
for his son Absalom, who, shortly after Kumalo's arrival in
Johannesburg, murders a white activist named Arthur Jarvis, son of
James Jarvis. This leads to the two fathers crossing paths, and
results in a significant level of character development for both of
them.
The film has a very similar feel to it as Cry, Freedom, a 1987
film which follows the lives of Stephen Biko and Donald Woods, a
black activist, and the journalist who worked to bring awareness to
the death of the other. Both films focus on the hardships faced by
the black population of South Africa, and discuss the corruption of
the white government of the country, and how it has destroyed the
system with which black people made their livelihood, but left
little in its stead.
