Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom spawned a whole batch of films about South Africa atrocities, and here's another. Once again, there's the caring white man (here Donald Sutherland) who gradually comes to realise the full horror of the Apartheid regime (the film is set in 1976) and there's a showy role for Marlon Brando as the Orson Welles-like lawyer who tears government witnesses to pieces at an inquest on a murdered black, knowing that it won't make a jot of difference. 'Justice and law could be described as distant cousins,' he tells Sutherland. 'And here in South Africa, they're not on speaking terms at all.' It's all well-made and depressingly familiar, easily arousing our resentment and anger, although the upbeat ending is not only highly fanciful but would surely have carried horrendous consequences for all concerned. The acting is quite good, if with rather passing attempts at local accents by some prominent members of the cast.


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