Skin (2008 Film)
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''Skin'' is a 2008 biographical drama film directed by Anthony Fabian. It is based on the book ''When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race'' by Judith Stone, and the life of Sandra Laing, a South African woman born to
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
parents, who was classified as " Coloured" during the
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
era, presumably due to a genetic case of atavism. ''Skin'' had its world premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
on 7 September 2008, and was released in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2009.


Plot

In 1965, 10-year-old Sandra Laing lives with her parents, Abraham and Sannie, who are white
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
s. They are shopkeepers in a remote area of the Eastern Transvaal and, despite Sandra's mixed-race appearance, have lovingly brought her up as their own. Sandra is sent to a boarding school in the neighbouring town of Piet Retief, where her brother Leon is also studying, but parents of other students and teachers complain that she does not belong there. She is examined by State officials, reclassified as coloured, and expelled from the school following a severe beating by one of the teachers. Sandra's parents are shocked, but Abraham fights through the courts to have the classification reversed. The story becomes an international scandal and media pressure forces the law to change so that Sandra is classified as officially white. At age 17, Sandra realizes she is never going to be accepted by the white community. She falls in love with Petrus, a young black man and the local vegetable seller, and begins an illicit love affair. After Abraham threatens to shoot Petrus and disown Sandra, Sannie is torn between her husband's rage and her daughter's predicament. Sandra elopes with Petrus to Swaziland but Abraham alerts the police and has them arrested and put in prison for the illegal border crossing. Sandra is released by the local magistrate to return home with her parents, but she decides to return to Petrus, as she is pregnant with his child. Her father disowns her. Now Sandra must live her life as a coloured woman in South Africa for the first time, restricted to housing with no running water and no sanitation, and struggling on little income. Although she feels more at home in this community, she desperately misses her parents and yearns for a reunion. She and her mother make attempts to communicate but are consistently thwarted by Sandra's father. Late in his life, when he is too sick to act on his own, he reconsiders and asks his wife to take him to visit Sandra. Sandra's mother, angry that his new-found guilt had surfaced only after he had for 10 years stubbornly ignored her own emotional torment and longing for a reunion, refuses his request and says that neither of them deserves Sandra's forgiveness. Eventually, Sandra's marriage to Petrus deteriorates and he becomes physically abusive. She leaves him, taking their two children with her. Sandra looks for her parents but finds they had since moved from her childhood home. Not knowing where they are, Sandra continues with her life, raising her children by herself. When the country's
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
government comes to an end, there is renewed interest in her story by the media. Sandra's mother sees Sandra interviewed on television and writes to her to tell her of her father's death two years earlier. The letter provides no return address nor any other clue as to Sannie's whereabouts, but receiving it prompts Sandra to renew her search. Eventually, she finds her mother living in a nursing home and the two are happily reunited. An epilogue tells that Sandra's mother died in 2001, and her two brothers continue to refuse to see her or her family.


Cast

* Sophie Okonedo as Sandra Laing ** Ella Ramangwane as young Sandra Laing * Sam Neill as Abraham Laing * Alice Krige as Sannie Laing * Tony Kgoroge as Petrus Zwane * Terri Ann Eckstein as Elsie Laing * Bongani Masondo as Henry Laing * Jonathan Pienaar as Van Niekerk * Hannes Brummer as Leon Laing * Onida Cowan as Miss Van Uys * Lauren Das Neves as Elize


Reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
gave the film four stars. Peter Bradshaw of ''The Guardian'' gave the film three out of five stars.


Awards

''Skin'' has won 19 international festival awards, including: * Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Audience Award), * Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival (Audience and Jury Awards), * AFI Dallas International Film Festival (Audience Award), * Palm Beach International Film Festival (Jury Award, Best Film), * Rochester High Falls International Film Festival (Audience Award), * Tri-Continental, South Africa (Audience Award), * Bordeaux Cinema Science Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize, Best Film), * Mediterrante Film Festival (Bari), Italy (Best Film), * Belize International Film Festival (Audience Award), * Moondance International Film Festival, USA (Best Score, Hélène Muddiman), * Accolade Award For Excellence (Original Score Hélène Muddiman), *
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
Time For Peace Award (Voted by 21 UN Ambassadors), *
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
Humanitarian Award (Italy), * Griffon Environmental Award, * Giffoni Film Festival, Italy, * Orange Film Prize, * Ability Media International Awards, * MAE Moseac Award for Best Independent Film, MAE Moseac Award for Best Actress ( Sophie Okonedo), * Bahamas International Film Festival, Rising Star Award, Sophie Okonedo.


Nominations

*
British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...
2009, Best Actress ( Sophie Okonedo) *
NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...
2010 (Outstanding Foreign Film and Best Actress, Sophie Okonedo) * Black Reel Awards 2010 ( Sophie Okonedo, Best Actress) * Political Film Society, (Best Film) *
Ivor Novello Awards The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...
(Best Score), Hélène Muddiman


References


External links

* *
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skin 2008 films 2008 biographical drama films British biographical drama films Apartheid films Films set in South Africa South African biographical drama films Films shot in South Africa 2008 drama films 2000s English-language films English-language South African films 2000s British films English-language biographical drama films 2000s South African films