The groundbreaking events of that year began with student protests at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, a segregated “township” of Johannesburg, the impact of which quickly rippled through the entire country, ultimately having significant repercussions for the apartheid state’s ability to justify and maintain the racist laws that divided South African society. It was during this time that children attending black schools challenged the South African state’s requirement that they be instructed in the Afrikaans language, along with the quality of the education (termed “Bantu education”) that they were receiving. The story is set in South Africa in 1976, a watershed year for protests against the apartheid regime. This is the central theme of both the film and the book on which it is based. But as is evident from the history of race, the ideals of justice can be readily corrupted by those who are in power and control the law. A legislative system is ostensibly a sociopolitical structure that exists to ensure the just governance of society, one in which all are treated equally and without prejudice before the law (hence the pervasive image of the blindfolded Lady Justice).

A Dry White Season -with its commitment to exposing racial inequality and the inherent tension between the construct of the law and the principle of true justice-is as relevant at our current global political moment as it was on its release in 1989.

Andre brink a dry white season