‘Cry, the Beloved Country’: Confronting Pain and Loss

Alan Paton’s novel presented in Zoltan Korda’s film is of a paradise lost, then regained.

(L–R) John Kumalo (Edric Connor), Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee), and Theophilus Msimangu (Sidney Poitier), in “Cry, the Beloved Country.” Hulton Archive/Getty Images

NR| 1h 43m | Drama | 1952

The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the abolition of South Africa’s apartheid. Director Zoltan Korda’s film, based on Alan Paton’s novel, uses a mid-20th century South African setting to paint a universal, timeless portrait of a shared humanity.