The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 81

H-3 Brando steals show in anti-apartheid drama CDv'tfatCttC, Montreal, Saturday, September 23, 1989 I) IE A C0NSEIL yumuu rtlMMUNAUTI Dt MUM RIAL ERVAISE 4 toffy Unejournee Jans a ire PasauetJolv' A ICfalCOIDJ 1110 atmosphere of a wprirlinn By JOHN GRIFFIN Gazette Movie Critic A Dry White Season is often heavy-handed and as shrill as a bird in a cage. But it will never be shown in South Africa. It deserves attention for that reason alone. This is a fictional drama about the awakening of a naive white Afrikaner to the reality of apartheid. That man is Donald Sutherland, playing a middle-class, family-oriented schoolteacher named Ben du Toit whose eyes are pried open by the mysterious deaths of his trusted gardener Gordon (Winston Ntshona) and the gardener's young son.

Gordon's family lives in the black township of Soweto near Johannesburg during a time called the Uprising. They and other members of the community are being systematically brutalized by the South African police for demanding a say in the future of the minority-ruled country. Alienates family In investigating the disappearances of his longtime help, du Toit uncovers a network of government duplicity, fabrication, oppression, injustice and institutionalized violence that forces him into action. During this process of radicaliza-tion, du Toit polarizes members of his own family and is branded a traitor by friends, foes, and the fiendish Special Branch captain Stolz (Jurgen Prochnow, of Das Boot fame). I -s A DRY WHITE SEASON L06WS Du Toit also finds others who share his commitment for change.

They include a taxi driver named Stanley (S.A.'s most famous black actor, Zakes Mokae), the progressive white Journalist, Melanie Bruwer (Susan Sarandon), and a crusty liberal lawyer, Mr. McKenzie. The lawyer is played by Marlon Brando, in his first screen role since 1980, and he positively burglarizes the brief time he has on camera. Too self-righteous Wan, infirm and testy, like a beached bleached whale, Brando is in arch Method heaven. He makes everyone else seem sanctimonious by comparision.

Sadly, that's also a criticism of the movie. A Dry White Season 's sense of its own manifest self-righteousness blunts the essential Tightness of its message. The film's also burdened with a curse that afflicts other anti-apartheid films, Cry Freedom for example. It was directed by black filmmaker Euzhan Palcy Sugar Cane Alley) in Zimbabwe from a novel by censored South African writer Andre Brink. It attempts to portray the destruction of white and black I Renaissance instruments.

Conducted by Gilles Plante u. -i i. Marlon Brando, Donald Sutherland in A Dry White Season. families by a racist regime. Despite the right place, but this is not the all that, A Dry White Season still film to expose the reality of black seems to attack the problem from a life in a white hell.

Such a vision will white perspective. have to come from inside the town-Its heart beats strongly in exactly ships. '4 STEINBERG tf! October 2 p.m. Eglise de la Visitation Maison de la Culture Ahuntsic 1847 Gouin Boulevard 872-8749 Jp SEPTEMBER j25AND26, LET YOUR J0UER DANS I'ilE is touring programme of the Conseil des Arts deb October 3:30 p.m. Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur lOOSherbrooke Street East 872-5338 October 18; 8 p.m.

Auditorium CEGEP Maisonneuve Maison de la Culture de Maisonneuve 3800 Sherbrooke Street East 872-2200 October 22; 2 p.m. Theatre du Grand Sault 7644 Edouard Street 4th Avenue LaSalle 367-1000, ext. 378 October 25; 8 p.m. Auditorium Maison de la Culture Cote-des-Neiges 5290 Cote-des-Neiges Road 872-6889 October 27; 4 p.m. Centre Marcel Giroux 4501 Bannantyne Avenue Verdun 765-7170 iOUL SOAR.

Communaute THE FIRST AIR CANADA CONCERTS OF THE SEASON VIRTUOSO NIGHT VIRTUOSO WORKS FOR TRUMPET, PIANO AND ORCHESTRA CHARLES DUTOIT, CONDUCTOR HAKAN HARDENBERGER, TRUMPET JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, PIANO September 25 and 26 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $36, $26, $20, and $8. On sale at the Place des Arts box office. October 13; 3:30 p.m. Ecole Saint-Octave 11 171 Notre-Dame Street East Montreal-Est 645-7431 urboine de Montreal, presented in collaboration with the 29 October 15; 2 p.m.

Maison de la Culture Notre-Dame-de-Grace 3755 Botrel Street 872-2157 municipalities of the Island of Montreal. SYMPHONIQUE Reservations: (514) 842-2112. Service charge: $1 on all tickets exceeding $10. Sponsors: Air Canada and the Succession JA. DeSeve SallWilfrid-Plletisr (TO Place des Arts I DE MONTREAL charles dutoit EVERY TUESDAY THRU SUNDAY 3rd faM.nl "They're Pfovinpr fJove((e lOtirSowt Join the knee Experience an electrifying Festival! September 19th to October 1st, 1989 by NEIL SIMON Music by: Marvin Hamlisch Lyncs by: Carol Bayer Sager Sljr, 7385 DEC ARIE VOLTAGE BAL POPULAIRE September 23 as of 9 p.m.

on StCatherine Street facing the Place des arts HIGH It's your turn to come out and dance! Saturday 9.00 p.m. JOCELYNEMONTPETIT Friday 29 7-00 p.m. AXGELIKA OEI (HOLLAND) ACCUSED OF laliberte Saturday 30 s.30 p.m. SisanneLinke (Germany) Place des Arts -Theatre Maisonneuve 900 p.m. MLTEK1 SHA OAPAN) UQAM Marie-Gerin-Lajoie $18 students, over 65 $15 Sunday 1st 7jpm.

Ultima Vez (Belgium) Theatre Denise-Pelletier 830 pm. SimnneLinke (Germany) Place des'Arts-Theatre Maisonneuve S30S25S21 GOfTHf 0 soopm MitekiSha (Japan) UQAM Marie-Gerin-Lajoie S18students, over 65 S15 A body has been discovered. -Will you be accused of murder? Join in the intrique. BEHIND DOOR NUMBER ONE EVERY FRIDAY FROM Montreal Museum of fine Ami $12 students, over 65 S3 HELD OVER TO 3:00 P.M. Tuesday 26 wir Sim Marshall Company (I.S.A.) UQAM Studio-theatre Alfred-Laliberte $15 students, over 65 S12 830 p.m.

COMPAGME BaGOITT (FRANCE) Place des Arts -Theatre Maisonneuve $30S25S21 3:00 p.m. COMPAGME KaRAS (JAPAN) UQAM Marie-Gerin-Lajoie $18 students, over 65 $15 Wednesday 27 oo m. Susan Marshall Company (U.S.A.) UQAM Studio-theatre Alfred-Laliberte 900 pm. Compagme Karas (Japan) UQAM Marie-Gerin-Lajoie $18 students, over 65 $15 Thursday 28 7:00 in. Angelika Oei (Holland) SPECIAL EVENTS DANCE BREAK September 26-30 between 11:30 a.m.

and 1:00 p.m. Free admission. Complexe Desjardins Information: 281-1870 A "lunch-break" noon series featuring an amalgam of recent video-dance and live performances by the up-and-coming participants in Montreal's dance scene: from high-energy highjinks to poetic, dramatic movement With Brouhaha, Carole Bergeron, Helene Langevin, Luc Charpentier, Benort Lachambre and Zone Animee. FILMSVIDEOS September 23-30 Cinema Parallele 3682 St Lawrence Blvd. -843-6001 Admission: $4 A selection of films and videos on the theme of ImagesMovements throughout the Festival.

Detailed schedule in the program of Cinema Parallele. MEET THE CHOREOGRAPHERS Foyer Jean Gascon Place des Arts at noon Admission: S3 Information: 285-4253 September 22: KazuoOhno September 26: Dominique Bagouet September 28: Susanne Linke Saturday 23 5JQpm Pierre Pah Savoii (Canada) I 1 1 10:30 p.m. $35 per person Dinner and show package AUBERGE LE VIEUX ST-GABRIEL pm. Pah-Andre Fortier (Canada) 426 St-Gabriel Montreal Reservations: (514) 878-3561 PVitflfrWd-liliberte Sunday 24 EDDIE MAY i wPm KazioOhnoOapan) Creation lsis (Canada' Place des Arts -Theatre Maisonneuve jd-Laliberte SlTsUrJenti, over QiTSO J30J25S2I soopm. Dana Reitz (U.S.A.) UQAM Marie-Gerin-Lajoie 5l2 30 pm 0 Vertigo Danse (Canada) Place des Arts-Theatre Maisonneuve a Pah-Andre Fortier (Canada) UQAM Studio-theatre Aifred-Laltberte S15students.

over 65 S12 IS' LE DEVOIR ConHtl in nt 4n Ci4i Offkt 41 teurnm Villa dt Montreal Commiuion d'mitiativ tl dwtoppflmnl cuHuralt ICIDECI Gouwnemeni du Canada MmisWre des Communications I CuilunlKi du QutMc DfcSNRTS Vy Great mornings start with 282-2929 imwl mm m.mm.