Apartheid was just beginning to face its end in 1988 as this movie was being made, but it was still a few years away from disappearing completely. This movie is set in the 1960's - a time when apartheid was still enforced ruthlessly, and "A World Apart" gives us the story of a white but anti-apartheid family struggling against the regime. The story is shown largely through the eyes of Molly Roth (played by Jodhi May) - a 13 year old girl. As the movie begins her father is leaving South Africa to avoid arrest as a communist. Meanwhile, her mother is an anti-apartheid journalist. Molly finds herself increasingly ostracized by many of her white friends and their families because of her family's political views, and her mother is arrested by the government under a law that allowed for people to be held for 90 days without being charged so that they could be interrogated. The movie certainly makes the point that apartheid and the white regime were inhumane and brutal. It also - to me - made the point that apartheid sowed the seeds of its own destruction. Because of its ruthlessness, rather than stamping out opposition by frightening its opponents, it enraged them and emboldened them and ensured that there would be an ever increasing number of recruits for the anti- apartheid movement, a point made (I thought) by Molly's raised fist in a gesture of defiance in one of the last scenes of the movie.
In this movie, the central family is the Roth family - Gus and Diana and their children, most importantly Molly. In fact, the movie is really based on the story of Ruth First, who was the wife of South African Communist leader Joe Slovo. First did, indeed, find herself arrested under the 90 days law and actually served almost 120 days before being released. She was assassinated in the early 1980's, and this movie serves as a tribute to her, and was actually written by Shawn Slovo, Joe and Ruth's daughter. I found myself wondering if the title might be referring to Molly's (or Shawn's) experience of being in a world of her own - not completely fitting in with the black world even though she was a supporter of their cause, and obviously not fitting in with the white world, most of whom regarded her and her family with a mix of contempt and suspicion.
As apartheid movies go, this was somewhat unique in trying to tell the story through white eyes. To me, though, it didn't really succeed. While the regime (shown through its police and security forces) was ominous and ever-present, the movie seemed to lack intensity and treated the subject a little bit lightly. It's interesting, but to me it seemed to miss the mark. (6/10)
