Skin (2009)

This is the 250th movie summarized on babetteflix since I began September 3, 2008. Jack & I were captivated by Skin, a sad look at South Africa's apartheid from the viewpoint of a true-life family caught in it: white parents, white son, dark-skinned daughter with kinky hair due to a genetic anomaly.

This in a time when the races were not legally permitted even to touch hands when making change. Change was sorely needed, but didn't come about until it was far too late for the Laings. Sandra Laing (born in 1955, she is alive and commenting), played as a girl by Ella Ramangwane in a radiant debut performance, is innocent and naive, believing that she is white because her parents have told her so. This was confusing to me: how could they all (parents Abraham and Sannie, older brother Leon) have been so unsuspecting of the potential for conflict in a society where racism was part of its very fabric; where they ran a store that catered mostly to black people who had to put their money on the counter, not in the shopkeeper's hand; where the majority blacks were treated as second class citizens and some of them looked an awful lot like their daughter/sister.

Actor Sam Neill (born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, he has almost 100 credits, including My Brilliant Career (1979), The Piano (1993) and Jurassic Park I & III (1993, 2001)) is great as the mercurial Abraham, who believes that his daughter is white and that apartheid is just (watch for his beard changing color from scene to scene). South African actress Alice Krige (Barfly (1987) and many more) is also very good as the loving Sannie (what a creative nickname for Susanne). After a while, the lovely and talented Sophie Okonedo (Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Oscar nominated for Hotel Rwanda (2004), brilliant in HBO's Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006), and good in The Secret Life of Bees) takes over the role of Sandra, which garnered her a nomination for a British Independent Film Award. Tony Kgoroge (also in Hotel Rwanda, as well as Blood Diamond (2006) and Invictus) turns in a powerful performance as Petrus.

This feature debut for director Anthony Fabian is powerful and moving. I recommend it highly.