Chichester Cinema at New Park
Sammy Going South
ICO and Optimum Releasing are proud to present Alexander Mackendrick's classic drama not seen in British cinemas since its original release in 1963.
After an air raid in Port Said kills his parents, Sammy Hartland (Fergus McClelland) is left alone, penniless and vulnerable in colonial Africa. So Sammy defiantly sets out to find his Aunt Jane, whom he vaguely remembers lives in Durban, South Africa, at the other end of the continent. Along the way, Sammy encounters a variety of disparate characters and untrustworthy adults, including a Syrian peddler, a sly Greek guide, and a rich, childless American tourist. He navigates a treacherous path through desert, across mountains and down river, until he meets and forms an unlikely bond with world-weary diamond miner Cocky Wainwright (Edward G Robinson).
Vividly evocative of a world long since crumbled, ‘Sammy Going South’ is a lesser-known film from the brilliant career of Alexander Mackendrick, director of Ealing classics ‘The Ladykillers’ and ‘The Man in the White Suit’, and searing indictment of Hollywood, ‘Sweet Smell of Success’. Unusually for the time, the film takes Sammy's viewpoint throughout, as the audience is carried on his epic journey with him. A film about a child but most resolutely for adults as well as children, ‘Sammy Going South’ is an undiscovered gem that has been carefully restored to best showcase the beauty of the African landscape as seen through a ten-year-old child's eyes.
We hope to welcome Fergus McClelland, the actor who played the young boy Sammy to introduce the film.
SPECIAL OFFER: Accompanied children under 15 Only £1
UK · 1963 · Alexander MacKendrick · 114min
