Cry, the Beloved Country

Made in South Africa and London, this film version of Alan Paton's best-seller was released two years after the tale had come to the stage as "Lost in the Stars." Lee is a decent man of the cloth who comes from the hinterlands to Johannesburg to find his son and sister, both of whom now live in a dank, rat-infested slum. Lee's son, Lionel Ngakane, has already been changed enough by life in the city to have killed a white man during a robbery. Ironically, the dead man was the son of Carson, a rich farmer from the region where Lee has his parish. Now both Carson and Lee have lost a son--Carson to Ngakane's bullet, and Lee to prison. Pregnant with Ngakane's child, Ribbon Dhlamini stands by the young man through his trial, during which we are introduced to all of the parties involved: Carey, the dead man's mother; Edric Connor, Lee's devious brother; Geoffrey Keen, the white head of a church mission; and a very young Poitier as a preacher. (official distributor synopsis)