This stirring coming-of-age drama about an orphaned white boy growing up in pre-War South Africa is at times inspiring, at others perhaps too violent. The English boy PK (played at various ages by Guy Witcher, Simon Fenton and Stephen Dorff) is sent to an Afrikaaner school where he is bullied. But it is there he meets the two men who shape his life: kindly German teacher Doc (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and dignified black prisoner Geel (Morgan Freeman). Strong performances from Mueller-Stahl, Freeman, Dorff and Sir John Gielgud and a good script that follows fairly faithfully Bryce Courtenay's novel make this film well worth watching. The final scenes seem a little too pat and predictable but on the whole director John Avildsen has created an absorbing and sometimes moving tale.


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