When Denzel Washington picked up his Oscar for Training Day, he made sure to namecheck Sidney Poitier, the only other black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. It's surprising, perhaps, that Poitier made cinema history with such an easy-going, laid-back film that doesn't make an issue out of racial differences.
He stars as a travelling handyman whose good nature and stubborn pride convince him to help a group of refugee nuns build a chapel in the dusty middle of nowhere. His comic sparring with stern mother superior Lilia Skala makes for an extremely likeable film that stops just short of sentimentality.