Skin (film)

"Never, never, never give up"

- Abraham Laing

Skin is a 2008 film based in apartheid-era and post-apartheid Africa, following the life of Sandra Laing, a black-skinned girl born to white Afrikaaner parents. The story drops many anvils about racism and living as a black person in apartheid-era Africa (To be expected, given the setting). The story progresses from when Sandra is a schoolchild, to when she begins searching for a husband, to her casting her political vote in a post-apartheid Africa. The film was given 10 awards in 8 different film festivals and nominated for one in another. It features Sophie Okonedo as Sandra, Sam Neill as Sandra's father, Abraham, and Terri Ann Eckstein as Sandra's father, Elsie.

Also based completely on a true story, as the Where Are They Now? Epilogue will show you.


 * Anvilicious: The film does not let up when it wants to prove a point about how awful life was for blacks and black-skinned whites in apartheid-era Africa
 * Butt Monkey: Sandra Laing.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:
 * Disproportionate Retribution: What Abraham very nearly gets on Petrus, thank God he was apparently trained in the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
 * Et Tu, Brute?
 * Hope Spot: Many.
 * It Got Worse
 * Love Hurts
 * Moral Event Horizon: Plenty.
 * The Headmaster,.
 * Petrus' last confrontation with Sandra. There are hints throughout the movie alluding to this before it finally happens.
 * Sandra's mother refusing to allow her dying father to speak to her may be a debatable example, but it seemed somewhat harsh to this troper.
 * Papa Wolf: Abraham Laing drifts between this,
 * Squick
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Sandra and Petrus.
 * Arguable.  However, it's probably no real justification for
 * Tear Jerker: Quite a few, but the ending of the film is this and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * : Sandra
 * The Woobie: Sandra.
 * Wangst: Amazingly averted, given that Sandra is really a Butt Monkey.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue