Cry, the Beloved Country (1995 film) Cry, the Beloved Country (1995 film) Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1995 South African-American drama film directed by Darrell Roodt, based on the novel "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. It stars James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. The film was made in 1995, shortly after the fall of apartheid and the free election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. Set in South Africa in October 1946, before the implementation of apartheid, this is the story of church minister Steven Kumalo who is requested from his village to Johannesburg. There he discovers that his son Absolom
Cry, the Beloved Country affected by "native crime" while blacks suffer from social instability and moral issues due to the breakdown of the tribal system. It shows many of the problems with South Africa such as the degrading of the land reserved for the natives, which is sometimes considered to be the main theme, the disintegration of the tribal community, native crime, and the flight to urban areas. Another prevalent theme in "Cry, the Beloved Country" is the detrimental effects of fear on the characters and society of South Africa as indicated in the following quotation from the narrator in Chapter 12: Paton makes