Forever Young, Forever Free
Forever Young, Forever Free is a 1975 South African drama film directed by Ashley Lazarus and starring José Ferrer and Karen Valentine. The highest-grossing South African release in its original run, it was picked up by Universal Pictures for U.S. release in re-edited and retitled form.
Plot
A white orphan, Jannie, is dropped off at an orphanage run by a priest and nun in Lesotho, Southern Africa. The boy befriends another orphan, Tsepo, who is black. While playing with a tractor tyre, Jannie rolls down a cliff, severely injuring himself. During this ordeal, he has flashbacks to his parents dying. Jannie is evacuated to New York City via a USAF mercy flight, to have his kidneys operated on, due to his injuries. He has permanent renal damage, requiring him to take pills for the rest of his life. The local village raises money so Father Alberto and Tsepo can go to New York. At the airport, Tsepo is mistaken for a school student and lugged onto a school bus, before escaping the school bus in Harlem. Upon meeting a Zulu-speaker, Tsepo is taken to the police and reunited with Father Alberto. He then joins Jannie and explores New York before the two friends return to Lesotho.Cast
- José Ferrer as Father Alberto
- Karen Valentine as Carol Anne
- Muntu Ndebele as Tsepo
- Norman Knox as Jannie
- Bess Finney as Sister Marguerita
- as Rakwaba the Witchdoctor
- Ken Gampu as Thomas Luke
Production
e'Lollipop was the first feature film for director Ashley Lazarus and television actress Karen Valentine. It was one of eight planned inaugural features in the Children's Film Theater, a U.S./Canadian matinee initiative slated to launch in late 1975 as a counterpart to Laundau's own American Film Theatre program. The film was named after a scene in which Tsepo and Jannie share a lollipop together, thus beginning a friendship which would mirror that of their actors Muntu Ndebele and Norman Knox.Knox was ten years old when he was cast by talent scouts visiting his school. Filming took place in South Africa and New York City, starting on 8 July 1974. When screened for South African authorities, it was passed uncut in line with screenwriter Andre Pieterse's intent.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for e'Lollipop was composed by Lee Holdridge. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette George Anderson wrote of its U.S. release as Forever Young, Forever Free, "A mixture of innocent-sounding pop melodies and African folk music... pleasant album 'dedicated to children everywhere.'"Themes
The film was "one of the few which imagined some type of friendship between blacks and whites... did not challenge apartheid ideology". In a 2019 story for Variety magazine, director Ashley Lazarus said: " E'Lollipop took on the need of South Africa to overcome the negativity of apartheid and the ramifications. We rose above apartheid and made a film about friendship between the love of two children. And that transcended apartheid."Release
In its native South Africa, the original e'Lollipop was South Africa's highest-grossing film during its original release, despite facing an embargo in Bloemfontein theatres for fear of bans. International rights went through Warner Bros., while Universal Pictures acquired the film for U.S. and Canadian distribution as early as 31 August 1975.Universal proceeded to re-edit and retitle it as Forever Young, Forever Free. The revised version, according to Keyan Tomaselli of Cinéaste, "turned the well-paced pathos of a little black boy who sacrifices his life for his white friend into a soppy happy ending which negates the film's moral and racial parable." Furthermore, its distribution in that market was mainly relegated to "the lower half of double bills".
In 2004, the film opened a Cannes retrospective on South African cinema. A subsequent video and DVD release in its native country was announced by Pieterse's MA Afrika company; proceeds were slated to benefit children's charities.