Skin

This story about a dark-skinned girl born to white Afrikaners during the apartheid era will come as a revelation to anyone who has forgotten what South Africa was like before the transformation brought about by Nelson Mandela and his colleagues. Not that South Africa is out of the jungle of racial conflict; it certainly isn't. But one hopes that the fate inflicted on Sandra Liang because of her color could happen today.

The story is gripping. The direction and the photography are efficient. The two best known actors in this film, Sophie Okenado ( Rawanda) and Sam Neill, are excellent as the adult Sandra and her Afrikaner father. But other unfamiliar players are also very good

Background: A dramatization of the life of Sandra Laing who we see speaking in the end credits. This South African story begins in 1966 during the apartheid era with a white store owner and their two children one of whom, Sandra Laing, has features that would be controversially classified as "coloureds" (mixed ethnic/racial & commonly w/white males) along with blacks & whites & Asians (mostly Indian).

Criticism: Whenever white, mostly Dutch, Afrikaners are presented they are almost all portrayed as vile & as nasty as can be. Could this have been so universally true?

Story: At the time people were defined/registered by their skin color. We see Sandra undergoing a magistrate's exam by having her skin examined & a pencil placed into her hair to test for holding power meant to distinguish coloureds & blacks from whites. Later we hear a courtroom geneticist testimony that most Afrikaners (white Dutch) carry "black" genes (guffaws from the white audience on hearing that) thus a recombination could produce darker skin & hair (called polygenic inheritance). Later in our story the registration laws were changed to make descent rather than appearance the determining factor. We follow Sandra into the '80s as she grows up & the alienation from her family. You get a feel for the effects of racism on a person that no written story could convey. How it divides & breaks whatever goodness is in people. We see Sandra at the end with her Rainbow Tuck Shop (a very small shop selling food, etc.). And this from her, "It's what's in the inside of you that matters, not the outside."

Comment: I can think of some politicians, particularly one, raised in a wealthy privileged setting w/servants that while growing up could have benefited from seeing this story.

I saw this last month at the 2009 Palm springs International Film Festival. This is based on the true story set in South Africa during the Apartheid system of a Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo), who was born of dark skin to two Afrikaaners of white Eropean descent Abraham (Sam Neill) and Sannie (Alice Krige) Laing. Sandra is a genetic throwback because unknown to her parents, and like many Afrikaaners, there was mixed blood in their heritage between the Euopeans who settled in South Africa and the indigenous Africans. The story begins with Sophie getting expelled from an all-white school because of her differences in appearance. She is reclassified as dark. Her father (who is himself a bigot) fights to have her reclassified as white. She eventually is but against her family wishes she causes an unbreakable divide when she decides to marry a black man and have herself reclassified yet again as black. This is the feature film directorial debut of writer/director Anthony Fabian who was also present at my screening for an audience Q&A. The screenplay is from Helen Crawley but there was a book written recently by author Judith Stone called When She Was White that goes more into the complete story of Sophie's life. This film covers Sophie from around age 10 through her first marriage. Both Fabian's film and Stone's book had the cooperation of Sophie herself in their making. An excellent cast with three veterans in the principal roles with Neill, Krige, and the young but very busy Okonedo who was an Oscar nominee for Hotel Rwanda. This is a good film but it plays more like a made for TV movie and HBO, BET, Hallmark, A&E, AMC or Lifetime should all consider showing this. I would give this an 7.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

It's 1965 Eastern Transvaal, South Africa. Sandra Laing is the young daughter of white Afrikaner parents Abraham (Sam Neill) and Sannie Laing (Alice Krige). She is kicked out of her all-white school for her African features despite being born as white. She is reclassified as colored and Abraham overturns it in court. At 17 in 1973, she has a relationship with black Petrus which drives a rift in between her family.

It's a compelling intriguing real life story. It takes a look at Apartheid from a different angle. There is a tough question at the center of the movie that is left uncertain. It does leave the movie at a disadvantage dealing with real people. Nothing is quite as clean in real life.

Anthony Fabian's 'Skin'is a powerful drama of South Africa's shameful history of white colonial Apartheit rule,that was thankfully overthrown. The story starts in 1965 when a young ten year old girl, Sandra has been thrown out of school for being black,despite the fact that she is of white,European parents. Her father,Abraham (played by screen veteran,Sam Neill)fights to get her back in school,by challenging the South African courts to insist that she's white). When he is unsuccessful,the family resigns to the fact that their daughter has to deal with the burden that she will be treated badly,because she is regarded as black. As the years go by,Sandra (now played as an adult by Sophie Okonedo,who absolutely shone in 'Hotel Rwanda')has grown into a beautiful woman,who is desired by one of the black locals, which disturbs Abe much (Abe is as much a vile racist as the rest of the population of the town). The rest of the film spans over a twenty plus year time frame that tells much of South Africa's social history,set against Sandra's tempestuous own personal history. The cast is rounded out by Alice Krige (as Sandra's long suffering mother,Sannie),Tony Kgorogue,as Sandra's lover & father of her children, who turns out to be hot tempered & abusive toward Sandra, as well as a cast of South African actors that turn in shining performances. The screenplay (written by Helen Crawley,Jessie Keyl & Helena Kriel) makes the most out of what was easily a dark period in South Africa's social history (and what some,even to this day,would love nothing better than to do but bring back). Rated PG-13 by the MPAA,this film contains some strong language,brief nudity & sexuality,and some truly disturbing images of racist fueled violence.