The movie Cry, the Beloved Country talked about a story that happened in a remote village of Ndotsheni and a large city Johannesburg in South Africa. Stephen Kumalo, who was a reverend in the village Ndotsheni, received a letter saying that his sister was struggling with illness in Johannesburg. Stephen decided to make an expensive trip to the city to take care of his sister. He also wanted to look for his son Absalom, who moved to Johannesburg long time ago and never returned back home. During Stephen’s trip in Johannesburg, he found out that his sister was a prostitute and tried to persuade her to return to the village. While looking for his son Absalom, the police announced that Arthur Jarvis, an advocate for South Africa’s black people, was killed in his own house, and Absalom was suspected as the murderer. Meanwhile, Stephen found his son’s girlfriend was pregnant. Arthur Jarvis’ father James Jarvis and Stephen got to meet each other because of this murder case. Finally, Absalom was sentenced death penalty even though he claimed that he did not mean to kill Arthur. In the movie, two father’s opinions and stereotypes have been changed due to their sons’ deaths. For James Jarvis, he did not really understand his son until he read his son’s publications and speech. His opinions and stereotypes about black population in South Africa used to conflict with his son’s. He had been feeling distant with his son when his son was still alive as they did not contact with each other very often and both had very different social opinions. After reading his son’s articles, he reconsidered about his views about the social institutional racism of South Africa. He then felt that he understood more about his son although his son was dead already. The movie described how the father finally changed his stubborn mindset and decided to advocate for black population in South Africa. On the other hand, what Stephen has experienced was also extremely tragic. After losing contact with his son for a long time, he made a difficult and expensive travel to Johannesburg and learned that his son has been arrested because of a murder case. As Stephen searched for his son from slums to factories, he learned what his son has been through over the years in Johannesburg. Absalom went from a slum worker to a gang member then to a killer. Stephen never felt that he was that far away from his son’s world. Ironically, this murder incident even brought the father and the son closer to each other. What made me really sad was the moment when Absalom was holding his father leg while the prison person was trying to separate them. I could feel how hard it was for a father to see his son going to be executed, and how regretful it was that the father did not have a chance to get close to his son until sentenced death penalty. At the end of the movie, Stephen made his son propose to his pregnant girlfriend. Even though the girl knew that her boyfriend was going to be executed, she still wanted to be married to him. Stephen, as a father-in-law to the girl and the grandfather of the baby, realized how important it was to bring them back to the village as a family. After watching this movie, I tried to trace back to the reason why this sad story actually happened and why Absalom and Stephen’s sister had to leave their hometown for Johannesburg. I learned that black people were allowed to own very little farm in the village during that period, so many black people would prefer immigrate to larger cities like Johannesburg to make more money. However, the fierce competition in big city and social institutional racism resulted in making them go to the directions of criminals. This story is an authentic reflection of the social institutional racism of South Africa.
