Based on a true story Skin looks at the life of Sandra Laing who, according to the Skin movie website synopsis was the embodiment of a phenomenon I’m sure that most white South Africans at the time (and maybe even now) would like to deny existed: “…a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their ‘white’ little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra’s thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world – and triumphs against all odds.”
Before I go any further I’d just like to negate any suggestion that it was about a cheating wife trying to pass of another...
Before I go any further I’d just like to negate any suggestion that it was about a cheating wife trying to pass of another...
- 3/19/2011
- by MsWOO
- ShadowAndAct
Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****
"I'm not black," says little Sandra to her schoolmate, after the girl has mentioned that all her best friends back home are black. No, Sandra is "white," as we learn in a terrific movie called Skin, which, before it is over will have sent Sandra, officially, from black to white to black -- and back again. The adult Sandra is played by the beautiful actress Sophie Okonedo (of Hotel Rwanda and Secret Life of Bees), and the younger version by charming newcomer Ella Ramangwane, who comes across as lovely as she is intelligent.
Rating (out of 5): ****
"I'm not black," says little Sandra to her schoolmate, after the girl has mentioned that all her best friends back home are black. No, Sandra is "white," as we learn in a terrific movie called Skin, which, before it is over will have sent Sandra, officially, from black to white to black -- and back again. The adult Sandra is played by the beautiful actress Sophie Okonedo (of Hotel Rwanda and Secret Life of Bees), and the younger version by charming newcomer Ella Ramangwane, who comes across as lovely as she is intelligent.
- 2/15/2011
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Chicago – It’s difficult to think of a more appropriate film to be released on the first day of Black History Month 2011 than Anthony Fabian’s under-appreciated gem, “Skin.” First screened on the festival circuit in 2008 before being rolled out for a super-limited theatrical run in Fall 2009, this moving and important fact-based drama never got the exposure it so richly deserved.
The reason why Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” failed to move many younger viewers was the fact that it never allowed audiences to feel the decades of struggle in South Africa that preceded the miraculous moment of unity explored by its story. The film never even bothered to explain the meaning of the word, ‘apartheid.’ “Skin” may in fact be the perfect companion piece to Eastwood’s film, since it literally puts a human face on the period of legalized racism enforced by the country’s ruling white minority for nearly a half-century.
The reason why Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” failed to move many younger viewers was the fact that it never allowed audiences to feel the decades of struggle in South Africa that preceded the miraculous moment of unity explored by its story. The film never even bothered to explain the meaning of the word, ‘apartheid.’ “Skin” may in fact be the perfect companion piece to Eastwood’s film, since it literally puts a human face on the period of legalized racism enforced by the country’s ruling white minority for nearly a half-century.
- 2/15/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Sandra Laing is one-of-a-kind. Born to white South African parents, her skin was dark. Some would say it was a genetic miracle, but for Sandra, her skin was a curse. She was born in the 1950s, in the midst of Apartheid in South Africa, a time when everything, from public bathrooms to the private homes, was segregated. The native Africans were shunned, deemed less-than-human and subjected to unthinkable treatment. And in the thick of it was Sandra Laing, a young girl simply looking to find her place in the world. Skin is the true story of one woman’s struggles and ultimate triumph in the face of adversity.
As a child, Sandra's parents love and support her, but her father Abraham (Sam Neill) has a deep-seated racism he cannot let go of. In order for him to accept his daughter, he must see her as white, in every sense of the word.
As a child, Sandra's parents love and support her, but her father Abraham (Sam Neill) has a deep-seated racism he cannot let go of. In order for him to accept his daughter, he must see her as white, in every sense of the word.
- 2/4/2011
- by Melissa Kovner
- JustPressPlay.net
Sophie Okonedo in Skin Winner of four audience awards, including at the AFI Dallas and Santa Barbara film festivals, Skin tells the factually inspired (and quite curious) story of Sandra Laing (Hotel Rwanda’s Academy Award nominee Sophie Okonedo as an adult; Ella Ramangwane as child), the "black" daughter of "white" Afrikaner parents (veterans Sam Neill and Alice Krige), who until then — South Africa in the 1950s — had been unaware that they must have had some black ancestors. Though raised as a white girl by her parents, Sandra soon discovers the importance of her skin color after she’s officially reclassified as black and is expelled from her school. Her parents then fight a judicial battle to have their [...]...
- 10/29/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The corrosive legacy of South Africa's apartheid system is still being felt, 15 years after that country's first free elections and its move to majority rule. To get a sense of just how deep the lingering effects of institutionalized racism must run, take yourself to Anthony Fabian's Skin, a powerful and compelling drama based on a true story that still resonates. It opens Friday (10.30.09) in limited release. The film looks at the life of Sandra Laing (played by Sophie Okonedo as a teen and adult, Ella Ramangwane as a child), a black-looking child born to white parents in South Africa in the mid-1950s. Though her parents, Abraham and Sannie (Sam Neill, Alice Krige), are in denial as the film begins, it's apparent to anyone who sees Sandra that she is, to use the terms of apartheid, colored, meaning of mixed race...
- 10/28/2009
- by Marshall Fine
- Huffington Post
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