In 1955, Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) was born to two white Afrikaner parents in rural South Africa. But thanks to a genetic throwback, her skin was dark and her hair tightly curled. The government’s rigid apartheid system was faced with a serious dilemma. Should Sandra be classified as white or black? For Sandra and her family, the complications ran far deeper.

Anthony Fabian’s Skin follows Sandra as she grows up in a society where color decides everything. She is granted admission to an all-white school, but suffers daily torment from her classmates. Her father Abraham (Sam Neill) is no more liberal than any other rural Afrikaner of his time; he can barely accept his daughter’s dark features, let alone the neighbours’ constant gossip. Even after tests establish that Abraham is in fact Sandra’s biological father, the plain fact of her difference complicates life. Only her mother (Alice Krige) offers real emotional support, but it comes at a great price to both mother and daughter.

Krige and Neill are fantastic in their performances in this compelling drama. Neill has always excelled at playing quiet, coiled rage, and here he conveys all the complex emotions of a man torn between his traditional values and the need to stand up for his daughter. And Krige is a marvel, her character’s commitment to her daughter playing out in a precise, detailed performance.

As Sandra grows up and falls in love with a black man, Okonedo reveals the full spectrum of her character: the childhood hurt, the uncertain identities and, in time, her pride as an African woman.