A Raisin in the Sun. 1961. USA. Directed by Daniel Petrie. Screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry, based on her play. With Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee. DCP. 128 min.
Walter Lee Younger is frustrated by his go-nowhere chauffeur job and the cramped apartment he shares with his wife and son, his mother, and his sister. The keys to this prison of poverty, lack of opportunity, and racial injustice arrive in the form of an unexpected—and perhaps undeserved—windfall. But if the Youngers accept the payment, it may come at too high a cost. Hansberry’s play was named Best Play by the New York Drama Critics Circle in 1959.