There comes a time in every life where people need to look at themselves and how they treat others different than themselves. Some people love others simply for their character and others begin to look at their differences as deficiencies and put them self in a class above those they consider themselves better than. For white teenager Harold who lives in South Africa, he's always been close to Sam and Willie, his mother's employees at the tea shop she run. They have then his confidence, his safe space when his father is raging drunk, and his teachers away from school. Now he's facing manhood and internal prejudices that he has suddenly erupt with conflicts over his father coming home from the hospital results in some very shocking outbursts. The hurt on the faces of the two men, Ving Rhames and Patrick Mofokeng, is something that will live with Harold (Freddie Highmore) for the rest of his life. Mofokeng is subservient and passive while Rhames tells him in a firm and gentle way how this has made him feel and how it will impact their relationship going forward, and having had referred to him as Harold prior to that now ads master to his reference.
A very powerful human drama where the men all of a sudden treated in a degrading manner realize that time in Harold's life has transitioned out of friendship. The two men are very dignified and do not erupt in anger as a result of being treated in a racist way, and for them, it's more than the silly outbursts of a teenage boy. Had it been a stranger on the street they could have easily overlooked it, but for someone they consider to be close, the hurt is unrepairable. Even if they were to become friendly again, that moment has changed everything. The performances and directions are uniformly great, with Jennifer Steyn worthy of mention as well as the troubled mother who is very stern and rather unfair with her two employees obviously racially conflicted over her son's closeness with them. This works very well because had it been presented with anger or violence, the points wouldn't have had the same impact.
A very powerful human drama where the men all of a sudden treated in a degrading manner realize that time in Harold's life has transitioned out of friendship. The two men are very dignified and do not erupt in anger as a result of being treated in a racist way, and for them, it's more than the silly outbursts of a teenage boy. Had it been a stranger on the street they could have easily overlooked it, but for someone they consider to be close, the hurt is unrepairable. Even if they were to become friendly again, that moment has changed everything. The performances and directions are uniformly great, with Jennifer Steyn worthy of mention as well as the troubled mother who is very stern and rather unfair with her two employees obviously racially conflicted over her son's closeness with them. This works very well because had it been presented with anger or violence, the points wouldn't have had the same impact.