Cry, the Beloved Country

Born in Johannesburg in 1962, director Darrell Roodt has never been afraid to be controversial. In 1986, he made the first anti-apartheid film to be shot in South Africa, Place of Weeping, going on in 1992 to make the musical Sarafina! about the Soweto Uprisings, starring Whoopi Goldberg and the 1995 remake of Alan Paton’s classic, Cry, the Beloved Country. He then jumped into the Hollywood mainstream with Father Hood, starring Halle Berry and Patrick Swayze. His other Hollywood movies haven’t been as successful as his African films. Yesterday, a 2004 movie about an HIV positive woman in Jo’burg was nominated for an Oscar. His latest project, Winnie, an unauthorized biopic of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, is due for release at the end of 2011. —about.com