DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Even Greener Pastures
HTML https://evengreener.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Books, Films and Series
*****************************************************
#Post#: 10092--------------------------------------------------
A Fantastic South African movie...and one of the best movies I`v
e seen
By: SHL Date: December 9, 2018, 3:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
All of Neil`s chatter reminded me of probably one of the best
movies I`ve ever seen. I saw it a few years ago, but it came out
in 2011. It´s called Skoonheid, the Afrikaans word for
Schönheit, or Beauty.
It`s set in modern-day South Africa and it`s a somewhat complex,
maybe psychological thriller of sorts. It´s the story of a
married, middle-aged balding white man in South Africa who runs
a lumber business. What we quickly find out is that he is a
closted gay man, but the product of white South African
apartheid, the system he grew up and came of age under.
While attending his daughter´s wedding to an extremely handsome
young man, he becomes obsessed with the man`s youth and beauty.
The groom is a charming young and really wholesome man who is
studying law in Cape Town. As it turns out, the young man is the
son of the older man`s old friend from the army under the
Aparteid government, which was extremely homophobic. Gay people
were severely persecuted at the the time under Aparteid, forcing
men like this to hid in the closet and marry women as a cover.
The older man is fascinated with the younger man and stalks him.
It has a sad ending, but is so well done contrasting Aparteid
South Africa with the current South Africa, it´s really a
cinematic masterpiece. Not only is being gay totally legal in
South Africa today, but they are the only country in Africa to
have same-sex marriage. In fact, one of the first countries in
the world to have it. It´s the polar opposite of Aparteid South
Africa. It ends with a poignant scene where the older man (after
doing some pretty bad stuff) watches a happy young gay male
couple in their 20s in a University cafeteria enjoying each
other’s company- a life he lost and was forever denied.
It won various awards and it quite moving. It`s about a man`s
life that was irrevocably destroyed. So there`s this deep
sadness in the movie for someone, who is not really a nice
person at all. Very well done.
HTML https://youtu.be/zJyV6DtLNEA
#Post#: 10094--------------------------------------------------
Re: A Fantastic South African movie...and one of the best movies
I`ve seen
By: NealC Date: December 9, 2018, 3:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Wow, it looks interesting.
I will have to check it out.
#Post#: 10097--------------------------------------------------
Re: A Fantastic South African movie...and one of the best movies
I`ve seen
By: SHL Date: December 9, 2018, 4:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Neal,
Yes, seriously this is a very touching movie. It could have been
called „Envy“ instead, because that`s strangely what it is
about. They say envy is the most distructive of all human
emotions and this movie illustrates this well.
It`s an unusual movie for sure, with a very deep and dark tone
to it. This man longs for a day gone by, he longs for his youth,
for the life he could have had but was denied under Aparteid.
Now it´s too late. His wife is perplexed why he shows no
romantic interest in her. No one knows his secret, except for a
band of old guys just like him, carrying the old legacy of
Apartheid. He hates blacks, and those of mixed race (a carry
over from his Aparteid past).
He sees the gay youth of today having a happy and free life, the
life he never knew and can never get back, and it makes him
crazy with envy and self-loathing. Or maybe a hatred of others?
It´s a movie with a deeply disturbing psychological theme, one
rarely or almost never touched on in modern cinema.
*****************************************************