Sandra Laing should be more widely known in South Africa. I doubt we value the lessons learned from the our own past as we do from school. Imagine a world where you are classified according to what the government laws dictate. That was the reality of Apartheid South Africa.
Even in 2013 we see glimpses of this Apartheid mentality because mixed race people in this country seems to have a Pavlovian disposition to feeling inferior and acting that way. The violence among "coloured people" is disproportional higher when looked at prison populations. So this movie is actually an important link between the past, the present and the future of mixed race people in South Africa.
What is striking about Sandra Laing is how her parents are both supremely dedicated and yet divided in how they treat their daughter. Everything manages to proceed as planned while she's in school, and even after she's asked to leave the school. Even her older brother stands by her even though he admits it's difficult.
How do we break free from our parents, from our roots and discover new ones? There is a Freudian element to Sandra's relationship with her father. He fights for her, he is strong-willed and takes on the government in one scene. Yet, he has doubts about whether she is indeed his biological child. At least this makes him human in sense. The family is surrounded by black people, some as labourers and some as clients in their shop in a rural part of the country.
As she matures into a young lady, her father arranges dates for her with young white men. After a terrible incident where she avoids being rapped, she eventually strikes up a sexual relationship with a black man with whom she has two children. His anger sparked by group areas act, and how it was enforced in by the Apartheid government eventually leads to him physically abusing Sandra. She leaves with her children and makes her way to Johannesburg, the big city.
The movie ends where it began with the 1994 elections. The dream that was dreamed by her parents is still alive in her, especially her father's motto of "never give up." She tells her mother on her death bed, that was all that kept her going during the 20 years of separation.
This is a story that speaks about all those things that makes us human: family, identity, uncertainty, choice and love. Without falling in love with a black man, Sandra would never have discovered herself. Her white father wanted her to be safe, to be protected and the never allowed her to be free, to find her own way.
Even in 2013 we see glimpses of this Apartheid mentality because mixed race people in this country seems to have a Pavlovian disposition to feeling inferior and acting that way. The violence among "coloured people" is disproportional higher when looked at prison populations. So this movie is actually an important link between the past, the present and the future of mixed race people in South Africa.
What is striking about Sandra Laing is how her parents are both supremely dedicated and yet divided in how they treat their daughter. Everything manages to proceed as planned while she's in school, and even after she's asked to leave the school. Even her older brother stands by her even though he admits it's difficult.
How do we break free from our parents, from our roots and discover new ones? There is a Freudian element to Sandra's relationship with her father. He fights for her, he is strong-willed and takes on the government in one scene. Yet, he has doubts about whether she is indeed his biological child. At least this makes him human in sense. The family is surrounded by black people, some as labourers and some as clients in their shop in a rural part of the country.
As she matures into a young lady, her father arranges dates for her with young white men. After a terrible incident where she avoids being rapped, she eventually strikes up a sexual relationship with a black man with whom she has two children. His anger sparked by group areas act, and how it was enforced in by the Apartheid government eventually leads to him physically abusing Sandra. She leaves with her children and makes her way to Johannesburg, the big city.
The movie ends where it began with the 1994 elections. The dream that was dreamed by her parents is still alive in her, especially her father's motto of "never give up." She tells her mother on her death bed, that was all that kept her going during the 20 years of separation.
This is a story that speaks about all those things that makes us human: family, identity, uncertainty, choice and love. Without falling in love with a black man, Sandra would never have discovered herself. Her white father wanted her to be safe, to be protected and the never allowed her to be free, to find her own way.