In My Country MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 Content: -4

Anna (Juliette Binoche), a white Afrikaans poet, and Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson), a black reporter for the Washington Post, travel with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the late 1990s throughout South Africa as they interview men and women who were victims of horrific Apartheid crimes from 1960 to 1994. As the country is in a time of healing, the commission searches for truth and reports the progress of the hearings. In each village, perpetrators share the truth of their crimes in hopes of receiving amnesty. But as family members share the gruesome details of family loss, the entire commission and audience is greatly impacted as fresh wounds are opened. In the process, the relationship between Anna and Langston shifts from shared disrespect to adultery. For Anna, the pain and horror of the proceedings tragically leads to a discovery in her own family.

This film offers viewers several strong biblical messages as, at each hearing, the audience sings a hymn translated Let your will be done and as the commission provides a wonderful example of forgiveness in their attempt to seek the truth so they can forgive those who destroyed families. For the commission, justice is peace and compassion. But the movie grows frustrating as Hollywood decides to veer away from the message of grace and forgiveness and, undoubtedly to fill more seats, spices it up with adultery, drunkenness and bad language, including more than 10 f-words. Anna is a loving wife and mother with a heart for the plight of the prosecuted black people, and yet somehow she ends up in bed with a black reporter. What could have been a touching relationship built on understanding and forgiveness is ruined with adultery. Also difficult for some to hear will be the horrific details of rape, torture and murder described in accounts.

Preview Reviewer: Henry J. Rogers
Distributor: Phoenix Pictures