The Wilby Conspiracy. 1975. Directed by Ralph Nelson

Film

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The Wilby Conspiracy. 1975. UK. Directed by Ralph Nelson. Courtesy United Artists/Photofest

The Wilby Conspiracy. 1975. UK. Directed by Ralph Nelson. With Michael Caine, Sidney Poitier. DCP. 105 min.

Ralph Nelson’s riff on Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones is a political thriller set in apartheid-era South Africa, following an African National Congress activist (Sidney Poitier) and an apathetic British mining engineer (Michael Caine) who are thrown together as they flee the secret police from Cape Town to Botswana. “As far as I’m concerned,” Caine would recall, “one of the greatest stars I have worked with is Sidney Poitier. My experiences on the set of Zulu had made me an implacable opponent of the apartheid system and I was pleased to be able to make a contribution to highlighting its cruelty…. In the mid-seventies, apartheid in South Africa was in full force so for obvious reasons we had to shoot in Kenya. Sidney was already a massive star in Hollywood but in Kenya he was treated like a god.” Close friends, Caine and Poitier would reunite in 1997 on Mandela and de Klerk, a television movie about the negotiations to end apartheid.

This film accompanies Michael Caine: A Shock of Recognition.

Past events

Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

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