Shadrach (film)

Shadrach is a 1998 American film directed by Susanna Styron, based on a short story by her father William Styron, about a former slaves struggle to be buried where he chooses.

The farm is owned by the descendants of the Dabney family, consisting of Vernon Keitel, Trixie McDowell and their seven children. But to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law, so the family goes through the arduous task of figuring out how to grant his request. Along the way they form a touching bond with the former slave and sharecropper, who has outlived both his former wives and somechildren.Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review, writing, Shadrach is a wellmeaning film, directed by Susanna Styron from her fathers autobiographical story. But without diminishing Shadrachs own determination and dignity evoked in a minimalist, whispering performance by firsttime actor Sawyer, it indulges in a certain sentimentality that is hard to accept in the dark weather stirred up by Beloved. The movie even has Vernon Dabney wonder if the slaves werent better off back when they had an assured place in the social order and got their meals on time the movie does not adopt this view as its own and quietly corrects him. But I was left with a vision of Vernon trying to expound his theories to Sethe, the heroine of Beloved, who would rather have a child dead in freedom than alive in slavery. Also, unlike all the other reviewers, who gave Shadrachs age as 99, Ebert described him as a 101yearold former slave. ........

Source: Wikipedia