When Joseph, a Zulu farmhand desperate to feed his family, turns up dead after trying to steal a chicken from his extremely nasty Afrikaaner boss, the murder is swept under the carpet by the local authorities. Joseph's friends and co-workers are initially too cowed to fight the power, but with the help of a bold woman named Gracie, reluctant Anglo journalist Philip Seeger, and the pastor who runs the local mission, they decide to try to bring the villain to justice. A Place of Weeping is a well made but not terribly well acted drama that is, nevertheless, far superior to most South African films of the period, which tended to be either tourist board paeans to the beauties of the land or ham-fisted action flicks about wicked commies and their ANC puppets. Director Darrell Roodt went on to earn acclaim for his adaptation of Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
