'Skin': A very personal story of the tragedy of apartheid

"Skin" is a moving and smartly made account of a truly peculiar episode from the period of apartheid that existed as national policy in South Africa until just 15 years ago.

Born in 1955 to white Afrikaner parents, Sandra Laing had the features and skin pigmentation of a black person — the result of a genetic anomaly. She spent her life adrift between viciously segregated cultures. She was alternately treated with love, cruelty, acceptance and ambivalence by her family and society.

We meet the 10-year-old Sandra (Ella Ramangwane) just as she's off to boarding school. Neither she nor her adoring parents, Abraham and Saanie (Sam Neill and Alice Krige), have ever thought of her as anything but a treasured child who's as white as their older son, Leon (Hannes Brummer). Crashing into harsh reality during her brief, spiteful experience with teachers, administrators and other students, Sandra is cast out of the whites-only school. This infuriates Abraham and sets off a constitutional battle that ultimately upholds Sandra's racial status but does nothing to alter her place in the world.

Part of the painful irony that haunts Sandra her whole life is the fact that her devoted father is such a fierce nationalist with unwavering racist attitudes (Neill sometimes overplays the love/hate thing). Sandra's decision to live her life as a black woman ultimately leads to her banishment from the family.

The delightfully versatile Sophie Okonedo takes over as Sandra during the '70s, '80s and '90s. She gives a richly understated performance that covers much hardship, tempered only by the fleeting joys of a loving husband, two children and a much-too-late rapprochement with her elderly mother.

Though sometimes overly melodramatic, "Skin" is elevated by its swift narrative and consummate period details. It's a remarkable chronicle of personal struggle that carries equal parts moral and emotional weight.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com