Skin

Debut director Anthony Fabian places the complexities of South Africa's self-image during the 1960s under a cinematic microscope in this engaging film based on the real-life experiences of Sandra Laing. Born with black skin to white Afrikaner parents due to a genetic condition, Sandra (Ella Ramangwane) finds herself caught in a crossfire of ideologies after her parents send her to an all-white boarding school when she is ten. Rampant racism among the staff and students at the school make for a short stay before Sandra is senselessly expelled and escorted by police officers back to her parents' care. Sandra's shop-owner father Abraham (Sam Neil) takes the issue to the Supreme Court to try to get his mulatto-looking daughter officially classified as "white." Years pass and the young adult Sandra (Sophie Okonedo) is tempted by the affections of a black delivery man named Petrus (Tony Kgoroge) to whom she relates better than the local white men with whom her parents set her up. Disowned by her father after being caught with Petrus, the couple starts a family in Petrus's impoverished shanty town. Okonedo plays her character's lack of worldly knowledge too much on-the-nose , wielding quizzical facial expressions seemingly intended to exonerate Sandra from her plight. Nevertheless, "Skin" is an Apartheid-era drama made with conviction and perspective by a promising filmmaker.
Not Rated. 107 mins. (B) (Three Stars)