The Best of Enemies

In early nineteen-seventies North Carolina, after a school fire, whether Black students will attend the white school is put to a public assembly. A civil rights activist and the local Ku Klux Klan leader are made co-chairs of it. The film follows that two-week assembly step by step. What works in the narrative is the process itself: who has a vote, who is allowed to speak, what changes with which motion. What does not work is that the weight falls on the Klan leader's change. Robin Bissell directed, with Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell. It follows the real story of Ann Atwater and C. P. Ellis. Before watching: the film was criticised for centring a white character's transformation in a story about racism. Klan violence and racist language are also shown directly.