4K Remaster of ‘Cry, The Beloved Country’ is a Crisp Revisit to an Empathetic Classic

Just three years after the novel it was based on, Cry, The Beloved Country (1951) reflects on the early years of apartheid from the perspective of a British director. Now, in this 4K restoration, the moral complexity and lens on race relations remains as timely as ever. 

Paralleling the lives of neighbours Reverend Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) and James Jarvis (Charles Carson), these black and white counterparts find themselves in the urban jungle of Johannesburg. Despite his father’s reservations, James’ son Arthur strives to improve housing and transport for the natives, while Kumalo’s son Absalom falls victim to the den of iniquity that the city has become for its Black residents. In this poverty stricken neighbourhood, Absalom turns to prostitutes and theft and the two sons meet in tragedy, leading their respective fathers on a journey to witness the hellish urban reality that their children have succumbed to. 

With Sidney Poitier playing Reverend Msimangu who summons Stephen to the city, these brothers in faith introduce a fascinating dynamic of naive and world weary, and of judgement and forgiveness. Their nuanced and impassioned performances carry the film, particularly Canada Lee’s wide-eyed innocence and pain. Thus it is shocking to learn that because of the Apartheid rules, Poitier and Lee were only allowed to enter the country to film if director Zoltan Korda pretended they were his indentured servants. It makes the movie all the more political when their stories dominate the screen, their expressions fuel the atmosphere of sadness and rage, and more poignant, given that even now, Hollywood is still learning to allow Black stories to be told. 

A message of true Christian love lies at the heart of this film: James reads his son’s eloquent writings that don’t blame natives for their situations, and the British Father Vincent (Geoffrey Kean) acts to help Absalom. Though villainy could have easily been portrayed as the white man, it is more accurate to say that the foil in this film is Stephen’s brother (Edric Connor), who sees himself as “free from church or chief” in the big city. But in losing God, he loses his compassion for his sister who has turned to prostitution “your trade is as good as mine” and is gleeful in the face of his nephew Absalom’s indictment.  

Though the bigger picture doesn’t change, something that may make modern audiences used to tidy endings wince, it is the shifting attitudes of forgiveness and forged family that give the film a quiet dignity. In an early apartheid era film, the seeds of revolution are planted in the form of honesty and handshakes, something our quick to fight, social media era could learn from. 

Cry, The Beloved Country is available in 4K on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital platforms now from StudioCanal

by Fatima Sheriff