Albee Lesotho Movies
Cinematographer Chris Menges' first directorial effort, A World Apart was inspired by the lives of South African journalist Ruth First and her daughter Shawn Slovo (who wrote the film's screenplay). Barbara Hershey plays the fictional counterpart to Ms. First, Diana Roth, with Jodhi May as her daughter. Told from the daughter's viewpoint, the film shows us that Diana and her husband Jeroen Krabbe are so busy with their anti-Apartheid political activism that they totally shut May out of their lives. In 1963, Hershey is arrested by the South African police, becoming the first white woman to be held under the infamous 90-day-detention act. Left despondent and suicidal by two separate arrests and by constant harassment from the police, Diana still won't include her daughter in her life until the girl presses the issue in a climactic confrontation. Some critics felt that Shawn Slovo was using A World Apart to settle unresolved issues in her own life: Ruth First was killed under suspicious circumstances in 1982, without ever reconciling with her daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, (more)
- 1996
This entry in the British Film Institute-sponsored international centenary celebration of cinema -- in which noted directors make a film that exemplifies their country or region's cinematic history -- represents continental Africa. Unlike many other series filmmakers, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, a native of the Cameroons, chose not to make a creative documentary, but rather a satirical narrative debate between the characters Cinema and Cineaste about the movie preferences of African audiences. Do viewers prefer to see serious African art films (the kind that populate international festivals) or American action features? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
