Denn sie sollen getröstet werden

A really good film could be made about the making of Cry, the Beloved Country which in itself is a landmark film about the early stages of the formal apartheid society in the Union of South Africa.

There's a famous story of Alfred Hitchcock shooting the scene with Cary Grant fleeing the United Nations on the sly with a hidden camera because the UN would not grant him permission to film. That's nothing to what Zoltan Korda had to just even getting Canada Lee and young Sidney Poitier into South Africa in the guise of houseboys. He filmed all the outdoor stuff on location there and the government never caught on. Had they caught on it might have meant prison, it certainly at a minimum would have resulted in deportation.,

Canada Lee plays Reverend Stephen Kumalo who comes to Johannesburg in search of his missing son Absalom. Another man of the cloth, Sidney Poitier helps him search for his son who among other things has gotten a woman pregnant and has committed murder during a robbery attempt in a fit of panic.

The rest of the story is not a pleasant one, but strangely uplifting as Lee, father of the murderer and the father of the victim who was a liberal South African fighting the apartheid regime pledge mutually out of their grief to work for a just society. It took a long time and it's not all together there yet, but South Africa is one of the great success stories of the past century about people of good will righting terrible wrongs.

Alan Paton the author was a prophet with no honor in his own country. His book, a world best seller, was banned in the Union of South Africa and Paton himself ostracized. Paton was a committed Christian who really did believe that all people were indeed equal and fought for that ideal all his life. He died in the mid eighties and sadly did not live to see the fall of apartheid.

Though a big budget film of Cry, the Beloved Country came out in the nineties, this time with the cooperation of the Mandela government, this film still sets a high standard just for courage in the making.

British social drama from the book by Alan Paton, from London Films and director Zoltan Korda has Reverend Kumalo (Canada Lee) living and working in a small farming village in South Africa. When he receives word that his sister is ill in Johannesburg, he journeys there and learns some terrible truths about not only his own family, but his nation as a whole. Kumalo is assisted by Johannesburg priest Msimangu (Sidney Poitier), and his Kumalo's discoveries bring him into contact with James Jarvis (Charles Carson), the wealthiest white farmer near Kumalo's church. Also featuring Geoffrey Keen, Joyce Carey, Vivien Clinton, Michael Goodliffe, Albertina Temba, Edric Connor, and Lionel Ngakane.

This was a shocking look at apartheid conditions in South Africa, a situation that wasn't widely known or discussed in Europe or the U. S. Stage star Canada Lee is heartbreaking as a good man facing miserable truths. Lee died soon after filming from a heart attack after being summoned to testify at the HUAC hearings. Many of the local performers were non-professionals, and it shows, but the film gains a sort of Italian neo-realist vibe. I've also see the 1995 film version featuring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. That's worth seeing as well, but making it wasn't a possible legal problem for the participants, unlike the 1951 version.

A sincere, but also very somber, glimpse of segregated South Africa, circa 1950. Reverend Kumalo (Lee) travels from rural home to Johannesburg to search for missing son. What he finds instead is degradation, both economic and moral, plus immense heartache.

That train trip through an industrial belt is riveting as we glimpse the harsh conditions along the way. Ditto, the shantytown slums of the city that Kumalo and Msimangu (Poitier) must search through. To me, these are the film's highlights since they're a long way from any movie lot. Then too, I don't recall seeing documentary footage from SA like this before. Note also, that the real thing is photographed not only on the streets but inside the shanties, as well. No constructed sets here. In my book, the Korda's should be saluted for their efforts to overcome what must have been difficult conditions to work under.

It's a very grim storyline, heavy on the notion of redemption, both personal (Kumalo's son) and societal (apartheid). Fortunately, the screenplay weaves these two threads together very effectively. It's also worth noting that hints at racial reconciliation revolve around religious themes instead of the more controversial political kind. The latter would probably have been impossible to do. Nonetheless, Kumalo's climb up the hill at movie's end is powerfully symbolic of the promise of a new day.

Definitely a must-see for serious movie fans.

Cry, the Beloved Country is not slick and is not a visual spectacle. However, that is not what it is about. It makes its point slowly but strongly and not in a glossy superficial way. It made me cry. This film also stars Sidney Poitier and that is always a good thing.

I had not seen this film for 55 years.It was shown recently on TPTV.I found it to be a worthy statement on apartheid.Sidney Potier shines in an early role.Canada Lee appears in his last role.