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 daughter regain her "whiteness" — and all the privileges that come with it — taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Sandra becomes officially "white" once again — but her skin hasn't changed colors. Racism continues to be an issue for her. Compounding matters, she falls in love with a black vegetable seller (Tony Kgoroge), which leads to serious family conflicts.
Written by Helen Crawley, Jessie Keyt, and Helena Kriel, Skin is the feature-film debut of UCLA’s Film and Television School grad Anthony Fabian. In The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen says it "serves as a stirring allegory for birthright and the assertion of one's identity in the face of oppression … the fact that it's actually based on a true story adds an extra layer of poignancy, heightened further by another superb Sophie Okonedo performance.”
Skin opens in New York City (Landmark’s Sunshine Theatre; Beekman Theatre) and Los Angeles (The Landmark in West LA; Laemmle Town & Country in Encino; Laemmle 7 in Pasadena) on Friday, Oct. 30.