A World Apart is based on the true story of a white South African journalist and anti-apartheid crusader. The film won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Barbara Hershey's performance as the journalist and the performances of two costars, Jodfhi May as her daughter and Linda Mvusi as the family's maid, were given the Best Actress nod.

Set in Johannesburg in 1963, the drama revolves around 13-year-old Molly Roth and her response to her parent's political activities. Her father has fled the country to avoid arrest by the South African regime. Her mother, Diana, a journalist, is active in the outlawed African National Congress. She is so involved in her cause that she pays little attention to Molly and her two younger sisters. When Diana is imprisoned without trial under a new 90-day detention act, Molly's one remaining friend at school drops her. The isolated and confused teenager gravitates towards Elsie, the household maid, who shows her first-hand what it means to be black in South Africa.

In his debut as a director, Chris Menges, who won Academy Awards for his cinematography in The Killing Fields and The Mission skillfully conveys the authoritarian clout of the South African regime and the bravery of those who resist it. And in an emotionally affecting way, he compels us to see how zealots can slight the ones they love due to the single-mindedness of their commitments. A World Apart triumphs both as a public glimpse of apartheid and as a personal glimpse of one young girl's struggle to come to terms with her parent's lifestlyle.