A Dry White Season

White South African school teacher Ben Du Toit (Donald Sutherland) was blissfully indifferent about the brutal realities of anti-Black racism under apartheid until the son of his Black gardener was killed by the police. Spurred to bring the police officer responsible to justice, Ben becomes an ardent supporter of the anti-apartheid movement to the chagrin of his family. This adaptation of André Brink’s eponymous 1979 novel marked the first Hollywood studio film directed by a Black woman. Euzhan Palcy’s sophomore film is equally unflinching in its depiction of the horrors of apartheid and the desperation of those who fought to end it.