Skin (Anthony Fabian, 2008): UK / South Africa

Reviewed by Darryl Walden.  Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009.

Most of us are familiar with the dramatic lives of Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko, relative to examining the tragedy of apartheid in South Africa.  However, the film Skin, directed by Anthony Fabian, graphically captures a poignant struggle against racial injustices through the real life story of Sandra Laing, whose fate was to be born with black genetic features to white parents during a time when apartheid was  in its last throes of existence.

A young Sandra (Ella Ramangwane) was raised in rural isolation by her parents, Abraham (Sam Neill) and Sannie (Alice Krige) Laing, who run a small general goods store.  She does not encounter cruelty about her genetic difference from other Afrikaners until she enters school where she is humiliated by a teacher that repeatedly whips her in front of her classmates, and ironically for having the courage to answer correctly.  She is removed from school and escorted home by police as if she is a criminal.

On one hand, Abraham is outraged and pursues legal recourse to have Sandra pronounced a white Afrikaner.  On the other, he enlarges Sandra’s emotional complexities by insisting that she use skin lighteners and to overly brush her hair so as to remove the tight curls.  At one point, she becomes so desparate to remove her blackness, Sandra uses chemically toxic cleansers which inflames her skin into raw ugly rashes. While her mother, Sannie represents the stronger emotional anchor, Abraham sternly admonishes Sandra to “never give up.”

Following adverse lower court rulings, the Supreme Court of South Africa ruled that an Afrikaner born with genetic defect was still entitled to all privileges due to white Afrikaner heritage.  Sandra was returned to school and grew into a stunning young adult woman (Sophie Okoneda).  Yet, she attracted the worse of young male Afrikaners which opened her to the affections of Petrus (Tony Kgorage), a local black produce vendor that sells to Sandra’s parents.

Abraham is incensed.  He threatens to kill Petrus and boards Sandra’s bedroom window.  However, Sandra elopes to Swaziland with Petrus where despite a court hearing that orders her return to her parents following a brief imprisonment, she stays with Petrus and his relatives which for the moment becomes a haven of emotional expression and acceptance.

Two children later, Petrus grows increasingly bitter towards Sandra.  He blames her for every oppressive Afrikaner action that adversely affect their lives.  Now Sandra must leave to escape his abuse.

I recall attentively listening to Anthony Fabian as part of a Director’s panel at the AFI Film Festival where he intimates that the making of Skin taught him to abandon any preconceived notions of what he thought of a different country, its people and mores.  The casting of Ella Ramangwane and Sophie Okoneda, respectively as the young and grown versions of Sandra was pure genius if not a lesson well learned. Through the stellar performances by these actors, we are able to grasp the uniqueness of Sandra Laing’s experience in having to sustain the brunt of racism from both sides of a diametrically opposed ethnic fence, and indeed, how she eclipses her own father’s notions of never giving up.

Whether the Academy finds Sophie Okoneda worthy of an Oscar remains to be seen. Yet, it is certain that Skin must take its place as a classic, on par with the likes of Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life(1959).