Skin deep

A restrained, thought-provoking true story about a black girl born to white parents in apartheid-era South Africa, as the result of a genetic throwback.

Young US director Anthony Fabian (who has himself lived in Mexico, France and the UK) graduates from shorts, documentaries and classical music histories with a striking first feature that gets not only to the heart of apartheid, but also of identity, loyalty and the blood ties that bind.

Written by Fabian, Helen Crawley, Jessie Keyt and Helena Kriel, Skin (2008) tells the true tale of Sandra Laing, a genetic throwback black girl born to white Afrikaans parents in apartheid-era South Africa. The mother, Sannie (Alice Krige) had been entirely faithful, and is unflinchly supported by her loving husband Abraham (Sam Neill). However, we are shown that the real problems emerge for Sandra (brilliantly played by Sophie Okenodo from 17-40) – while she is much loved by her parents, she finds it increasingly difficult, over time, to find her place in an artificially segregated society in which she belongs to both (and neither) ‘side’.

Sounds almost too contrived to be true, doesn’t it? The pictures and footage of the real people behind the dramatization which end the film, however, confirm the story’s veracity.

Of course, it is apartheid itself that is shown to be the enemy – wisely, Fabian does not lecture his audience, but rather allows the apartheid system more than enough rope to hang itself with, highlighting what the system actually meant for those people who were unfortunate enough to have to live under institutionalized racism.

The complexity of Sandra’s relationship with her parents is also illuminating – Sannie appears to passively accept the segregated system in which she lives. Not seeking to change the system, since the circumstances of her daughter’s birth have not made her militant, she is concerned simply with providing the best future for her daughter. However, Abraham (another solid turn from the always dependable Neill, if you can ignore his occasionally caricatured accent) is forced to reconcile his own belief system, namely that white people are superior to black with his obvious love for his daughter, and he must deal with the fact that he can never truly know that his wife is telling the truth even though she says there is no other possibility. Never completely sympathetic, Neill’s restraint nevertheless prevents the character from descending into monstrous excess.

Complex, but with a clarity of vision that shines through despite some gaps in the earlier part of the story (such as us not finding out Sannie’s initial reaction to giving birth to a black child), Skin, somewhat paradoxically but thankfully, avoids painting a ‘black and white’ picture of intolerable times and marks its director as one to watch.

107 mins. In English and Zulu.