Skin: Treating difficult subjects

Many films in competition at DIFF tackle controversial and sensitive issues, such as political corruption, poverty and race, which are not only discussed on the big screen but also on the red carpet.

The UK-South African film, Skin, is debut feature by award-winning documentarian Anthony Fabian set in 1950s rural South Africa. Based on real events, the film tells the story of Sandra Laing, a black girl born to white parents in South African during the Apartheid.

Fabian, Krige and Laing, along with her husband Johannes Motloung, walked the red carpet before the gala screening of the film, which was selected for the Cultural Bridge programme. Actress Sophie Okonedo, who portrays Laing, didn't attend the festival.

“Racism is alive and well in the world unfortunately, and it's one of the greatest ills there is. It's what terrorism is all about,'' Fabian said. “The message of the film is that diversity, multiculturalism, all wonderful things, but it should be a world of inclusion, not exclusion, because of difference.''

Legally classified as white, then black, young Laing faces a lifetime of difficulties. Her parents, Abraham (Sam Neill) and Sannie (Alice Krige), stoically fight to overturn the decision, bringing her expulsion from an all-white school to international attention. But when, at the age of 17, Sandra falls in love and elopes with Petrus, a black man, her father and brother disown her.

Laing, a very shy woman, stayed close to her husband on the red carpet, holding his hand the whole time. “I was glad that somebody wanted to make a movie to show the world how apartheid treated the people,'' she said in a soft voice about finding out that Fabian wanted to make a movie based on her life.

Fabian said race is a difficult subject to do subtly because racism and prejudice are crude things to deal with. “We try to do it through the subtle ways in which people interact with each other, rather than through heavy-handed dialogue,'' he explained. For instance, there's a moment in the film when Sandra's father taps the counter in a shop to tell a customer where to put the money because he doesn't want to touch her skin. “You understand through that tiny gesture which happens in 10 seconds everything about his world,'' the director and producer said. That's in contract to Krige's character, who in the same scene, takes money from somebody and put both her hands around his.

Krige, a South African, said she immediately accepted the role after reading the script because of the message it conveys but also because it gave her the opportunity for the second time in her career to portray a South African figure.

“I was able to let go of everything and dream my way back into my childhood,'' she said. Specifically speaking about her character as Laing's mother, she said, “Sannie's strength is her enduring love for her child irrespective of the colour of her skin. She starts in a place of apprehension of fear about what the future holds, and then her life is taken apart. It was my feeling – and Sandra may have a different opinion – that her relationship with her husband became unbearably strained after the loss of Sandra, and her relationship with her sons was never the same again. She spent her life after Sandra left grieving.''

Kride's journey is extraordinary because she starts off very fresh and loving and she ends up almost a husk of a person because of what she's endured. Her emotions have almost dried out by the end. It's only Sandra coming to water them at the very end, that sorts of rehydrates her emotionally.

Fabian was then asked about his future projects. “I'm very interested in films that teach people about other cultures. I'm currently developing two projects that are set in Russia, because I think there's very little understanding about what Russian culture is really about,'' he said.

Both Fabian and Brendan Fraser, who followed the Skin group on the red carpet to promote his children's movie Inkheart, spoke highly about Dubai.

“I'm astonished by the place. I'm really pleasantly surprised. There's a really positive energy and a sense of possibility of what can be done. It's a place that's trying to put itself on the map, and there's something quite exciting about that. It's the energy here that impresses me the most,'' Fabian said.

The Canadian-American actor said that it was exciting to witness how progressive a city Dubai is and how much it's growing exponentially. Inkheart, which premiered at DIFF on Sunday, is in competition for the Cinema for Children programme. Produced and directed by Iain Softley, the movie is about a young girl who discovers that she has inherited her father's (Fraser) ability to bring storybook characters to life. The cast includes Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Eliza Hope Bennett, Jim Broadbent Rafi Gavron and Sienna Guillory.

The 40-year-old lead actor, known for his roles in The Mummy series, Crash and Journey to the Center of the Earth, was pretty sarcastic about his future career plans. “I'm thinking about doing some shingling on my house, look for a job, take some time, hang out with my kids (6, 4 and 2 years old), have a life,'' Fraser said.

Also on the red carpet: