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BOESMAN AND LENA Send This Review to a Friend
Released following its showing at the New York Film Festival, "Boesman and Lena" was directed by the late John Berry, who went to work abroad after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era. His adaptation of Athol Fugard's searing play grimly explores the toll taken by racism in South Africa on one mixed-race couple as they wander the countryside homeless and try to reconcile the love they once felt for each other with the traumas they constantly face.
Danny Glover is heartrending as Boesman, and Angela Bassett pours her actor's heart out as the resentful Lena. The story evolves into steady conflict between them, marked by anger on the one hand and being bound together by circumstance. Bassett's performance needs more nuance as it is stridently one-note no matter how passionately felt. But it is a major opportunity for her to make an impression as a dramatic actress.
One of the most moving scenes is the inter-cutting of Boesman and Lena when they were young and in love. That contrast with the way they have become says more than all of the loud emoting, and it is an inspired moment. Whatever the film's flaws, it is a work that demands to be seen. A Kino International release.
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