Come Back, Africa

One of the bravest and most powerful political films ever made, Lionel Rogosin’s urgent indictment of racial injustice—filmed in secret in 1950s Johannesburg, South Africa—follows a young Zulu man’s struggles to provide for his family under the crushing burden of apartheid. As in his previous docufiction landmark ON THE BOWERY, Rogosin immersed himself in the world of his subjects, in this case in the Black cultural hub of Sophiatown, a vibrant center of music, art, literature, and politics that was soon to be razed by the government to make way for a whites-only suburb. Largely improvised by a nonprofessional cast that includes legendary singer and activist Miriam Makeba, Come Back, Africa reveals both the cruelty of apartheid and the vitality of a community struggling for equality.