Mary and Martha

“Two mothers lose their sons to malaria.”

Mary (Hilary Swank), a wealthy American housewife, takes her bullied son out of school and brings him on a trip through Southern Africa. After he dies of malaria, she goes back to Africa and meets Martha (Brenda Blethyn), an Englishwoman whose own son, a teacher there, died of the same disease. Phillip Noyce follows the two mothers as they work toward one cause, and a friendship grows between them out of what each has lost.