Skin (2008 film)
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Anthony Fabian |
| Produced by | Anthony Fabian Genevieve Hofmeyr Margaret Matheson |
| Written by | Helen Crawley Anthony Fabian Jessie Keyt Helena Kriel |
| Starring |
Sophie Okonedo Sam Neill Alice Krige |
| Music by | Helene Muddiman |
| Cinematography | Dewald Aukema Jonathan Partridge |
| Edited by | St. John O'Rorke |
| Distributed by | BBC Films (UK) |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom South Africa |
| Language | English |
Skin is a British-South African 2008 biographical film – based on the book When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone – directed by Anthony Fabian, about Sandra Laing, a South African woman born to white parents, who was classified as "Coloured" during the apartheid era, presumably due to a genetic case of atavism. Skin premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2009.
The film was released to a limited number of US cinemas on 30 October 2009. It started showing in South Africa on 22 January 2010, and in Australia and New Zealand 25 July 2010.
The year is 1965, and 10-year-old Sandra and her parents, Abraham and Sannie, are white Afrikaners. Her parents are shopkeepers in a remote area of the Eastern Transvaal and, despite Sandra's mixed-race appearance, have lovingly brought her up as their white little girl. Sandra is sent to a boarding school in the neighbouring town of Piet Retief, where her (white) brother Leon is also studying, but parents of other students and teachers complain that she does not belong.
She is examined by State officials, reclassified as coloured, and expelled from the school. 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 again.
By the time she is 17, Sandra realises 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. 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. 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.
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Wikipedia