Master Harold...and the Boys is a 2010 film, which is based on the original theatre play of the same name

Master Harold...and the Boys

Master Harold...and the boys is a play by Athol Fugard. It was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in early 1982 and made its premiere on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on 4 May where it ran for 344 performances...

 by Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...

, directed by director Lonny Price

Lonny Price

Lonny Price is an American actor, writer, and director, primarily in theatre. He is known for making statements on current events in versions of his musicals. His acclaimed May 2008 New York Philharmonic production of Camelot was making a statement about the current war including having different...

. The cast includes Freddie Highmore

Freddie Highmore

Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...

 and Ving Rhames

Ving Rhames

Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

 with the release to be set in 2010.

Plot

Set in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, during the early apartheid days. The story deals with the coming of age of seventeen year old Hally (played by Freddie Highmore

Freddie Highmore

Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...

). Hally, a white South African, has a bad relationship with his biological father and is torn between his father’s expectations and opinions of him and those of his surrogate fathers, black waiters named Sam (played by Ving Rhames

Ving Rhames

Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

) and Willie (played by Patrick Mofokeng). Young Hally is obliged to laugh at his father’s racist jokes and perform humiliating tasks like empty chamber pots. By contrast, Sam exposes Hally to many positive experiences. After being humiliated by his father, Sam shows Hally how to be proud of something he’s achieved by helping him build and fly his own kite.

One day, Hally receives news that his real father, a violent alcoholic, is coming back home from a long stint in a hospital. Hally, distraught with this news, unleashes years of anger and pain on his two black friends.

Production

Master Harold and the Boys began filming in and around Cape Town, South Africa in mid-January, 2009 over a five week period. It is one of the first feature films in South Africa to be shot on the RED One camera. This film has a budget of just under $3m. Apart from its two international actors (Freddie Highmore & Ving Rhames), Nugent and American director Lonny Price, this film is a fully South African film. Waterfront Post will post-produce this film, with Spier Films owning copyright. All the HOD's (Head of Department) are South African, including Director of Photography Lance Gewer from the Oscar-winning Tsotsi, editor Ronelle Loots, production designer Tom Gubb and Pierre Viennings (wardrobe). Philip Miller is composing the music.

DVD / Blu-ray release

Master Harold and the Boys was released in the United States on July 5, 2011 to DVD and Blu-ray.