A Dry White Season (1989)

[Scottie]

A Dry White Summer (1989)

With this bracing drama, made at the climax of the anti-apartheid movement, director Euzhan Palcy issued a devastating indictment of South Africa’s racist government—and made history in the process, becoming the first black woman to direct a Hollywood studio film. White schoolteacher Ben Du Toit (Donald Sutherland) lives in Johannesburg and remains blissfully incurious about the lives of his black countrymen until a wave of brutal repression comes crashing down on his gardener (Winston Ntshona), bringing Du Toit face-to-face with harsh political realities. Based on a celebrated novel by André Brink and rooted in the first-hand research the Martinican Palcy did in South Africa into the way black people lived under apartheid, A Dry White Season is unflinching in its depiction of violence and its chronicling of injustice, making for a galvanizing tribute to those willing to sacrifice everything to fight oppression.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with director Euzhan Palcy by film critic Scott Foundas
• Five Scenes, a new program featuring Palcy
• Interview from 1989 with actor Donald Sutherland
• Excerpt from a 1995 interview Palcy conducted with Nelson Mandela
• Footage of Palcy receiving the highest distinction for foreign dignitaries at the 2017 South African National Orders awards
• PLUS: An essay by filmmaker and scholar Jyoti Mistry
• New cover by Adam Maida