While driving through Arizona, Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) stops at a chapel run by a group of East German nuns. He intends to stay only briefly, but ends up building most of the chapel for them. Naturally, both sides are a bit unfamiliar with the other side: Homer has to explain to the nuns his life as a black man in America, and the nuns have to explain to Homer their mission in life.
As always, Sidney Poitier does a splendid job as a man forcing people to look into their own prejudices. In fact, his character is someone still looking for his path in life. Maybe some people might say that Poitier was essentially playing the same character that he always played, but we have to remember that this was a total break from the Stepin Fetchit mold that had dominated the image of black people for so long, so movies like "Lilies of the Field" were pretty important. Poitier's Oscar win for this movie was well-deserved.
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