Danny Glover, Paul Butler, DeVaughn Nixon
One of America’s most highly regarded independent filmmakers, Charles Burnett wrote and directed this blues-fuelled drama about a Black middle-class family living in South Central Los Angeles.
Family tensions are already simmering when Harry (Danny Glover) arrives to visit his old friends. He exudes an easy charm, knows secrets past and present and is soon installed in the heart of the family. But as his stay lengthens, he begins to cast a malevolent spell, provoking turmoil, setting son against son, reviving past hatreds and inflicting a mysterious illness.
Expanding on his craft, director Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother’s Wedding) weaves family melodrama with an elemental folk tale. Deeper, buried undercurrents of generational guilt and historical pain are uncovered when Harry, a forgotten memory of the past, ingratiates and then intrudes. As with all of Burnett’s films, the full spectrum of life is here, mixing the lyrical and the mystical to great effect.
With thanks to the BFI and Ashley Clarke
