Das Jahr ohne Vater (1972)

Das Jahr ohne Vater: Directed by Martin Ritt. With Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews. The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.

“This is a great movie. Itu0026#39;s what you call a slice of life, and the life thatu0026#39;s investigated is that of a desperately poor, horribly downtrodden African-American family in Depression-era Louisiana. Love it for what it is.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen I was watching this in the movie theatre for the first time in 1972, I was seated with my other high school friends behind 3 rows of a Southern Baptist Sunday School class, that was amply chaperoned by about 2 adults for every 5 children. Near the beginning of the film, as the family and Ike are passing a clapboard church that has a white congregation, David asks his father why black and white people go to different churches when God is the same God to everyone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIke pipes up and says once, when he was in another town, he accidentally stumbled into a white church on a Sunday morning, and was lucky to get out alive. So he asked God, u0026quot;why did fellow Christians practically try to kill me just for coming to worship You with them?u0026quot; And God replied to Ike, u0026quot;Son, at least you got INSIDE a white church – Iu0026#39;ve been trying to do that for 2000 years!!u0026quot; And with that, the entire 3 rows of Southern Baptist Sunday School, children and adults, stood up and walked out of the theatre! The truth hurts. This is a truthful beautiful movie. So glad I stumbled upon it today – just as Nathan Lee was coming home. Sigh.”