In 1999, Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive in Odisha by Hindu extremists. The chilling story will now unfold on screen in the film The Least Of These: The Graham Staines Story. Directed by Anees Daniel, the controversial subject is bound to raise the hackles of any section of people in India when the film releases on February 1, 2019.
It stars the versatile American actor Stephen Baldwin as Staines while Sharman Joshi plays a journalist who’s sent to investigate whether Staines is guilty of forced conversion. Says a source, “They shot the film in India in complete secrecy, considering the content and how much of a ruckus it’s likely to create.”
Significantly another international film entitled Against Itself directed by Kranti Kanade on the same thorny subject featuring the astounding Harvey Keitel as a character based in Graham Staines was never released. One hopes The Least Of These meets a better fate.
