DISGRACE
With
John
Malkovich,
Jessica
Haines,
Eriq
Ebouaney,
Fiona
Press,
Charles
Tertiens,
Scott
Cooper,
Paula
Arundell
Written
by Anna
Maria
Monticelli
(based
on the
novel
by J.M.
Coetzee)
Directed
by Steve
Jacobs
Nobel
Prize
winner
J.M.
Coetzee's
book
Disgrace
not
only
won
the
Booker
Prize
in the
cross-over
between
1999
and
2000,
but
also
sparked
serious
debate
(especially)
amoung
(white)
South
Africans
with
democracy
only
half
a decade
old
at the
time.
With
another
decade
lapsing,
many
of these
issues
are
still
quite
pressing.
From
the
get-go
I have
to say
this
is a
grim,
bleak,
heavy
movie
which
should
not
be on
your
list
if you're
out
for
an evening's
light,
frivolous
entertainment,
but
rather
if you
want
to delve
into
post-Apartheid
South
Africa's
dark
psyche
and
leave
the
theatre
emotionally
bent.
David
Lurie
is a
poetry
professor
at a
South
African
university.
Divorced,
he spends
time
with
prostitutes
and
also
starts
an affair
with
one
of his
(rather
reluctant)
students.
This
indiscretion
and
abuse
of power
comes
out
and
he is
forced
to resign.
Living
in a
romanticized
Byronesque
world
of his
own
creation,
aspiring
to write
an opera
he is
blissfully
unaware
how
this
wporldview
projected
on others
is not
necessarily
perceived
as he
does.
His
dismissal
(without
owning
up to
his
wrongdoing)
leads
to him
leaving
Cape
Town
to visit
his
(somewhat
estranged)
daughter
Lucy
in the
Eastern
Cape
- living
on a
small-holding,
sharing
the
space
with
Petrus,
a black
labourer
who
won
the
land
in a
restitution
claim.
She
is gay
and
her
lover
recently
left
her.
David
starts
work
at an
animal
welfare
clinic.
Their
simple
life
is shattered
when
a trio
of black
youths
attack
them
with
rape,
assault,
theft
and
the
killing
of their
dogs
the
result.
Petrus
happened
to be
away
when
this
attack
occurred,
and
they
find
out
that
one
of the
boys
are
related
to his
new
wife.
Amid
this
desolation
David
needs
to find
redemption
and
realization
of his
own
actions
and
their
repercussions,
and
face
acceptance
of what
many
was
hoping
would
be a
brighter
future,
but
where
misery
simply
seems
to be
more
equally
distributed
than
before.
Both
the
actions
and
inactions
of the
characters
are
very
frustrating,
and
I'm
afraid
that
this
movie
may
hit
a bit
too
close
to home
if you
choose
not
to read
the
sub
text
metaphor
of the
white
settler
raping
the
land
and
getting
payback
for
his
actions.
Someone
who
is already
fed
up with
the
escalation
and
brutality
of crime
in South
Africa
could
easily
get
overwhelmed
by the
basics
of the
narrative,
regardless
of whether
the
country's
history
has
bred
it or
not
- and
this
film
could
easily
make
up the
mind
of someone
who
has
been
balancing
on the
wire
whether
to remain
in South
Africa
or move
to Australia
(where
writer
Coetzee
happens
to find
himself
like
so many
other
local
imigrants).
For
South
Africans
this
is an
entirely
different
viewing
experience
than
someone
living
elsewhere,
and
if directed
by a
local
(as
opposed
to the
Australian
Jacobs)
it may
also
have
turned
out
a very
different
movie.
While
it would
be difficult
to filter
out
Coetzee's
political
and
historical
themes,
a viewer
with
an unprepared
mindset
entering
this
movie
may
get
much
more
than
they
bargained
for.
4
/ C
- Paul
Blom
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2
3
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5 6
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A -
B -
C