A Dry White Season

"A Dry White Season" is based on the best-selling book of dissident Afrikaner writer, Andre Brink. Johannesburg, 1976. More than 4000 black children in the township of Soweto have been shot by the police for protesting against their inferior education. Ben Du Toit, a white prep school history teacher, has closed his eyes to the crimes. In fact, when his gardener's son Jonathan is abducted by police during a demonstration, Ben tells Gordon not to worry, that the boy will certainly be released since he's innocent. But when Gordon and Jonathan die in police custody, Du Toit cannot accept suicide as the official cause of death. He convinces a human rights lawyer, Ian McKenzie, to represent them at an inquest and prove the police guilty of torture and murder. Soon Ben is embroiled in the politics that are stifling not only blacks but South Africa in general, quickly alienating his fellow workers and his family in the process.