Disgrace

With the eyes of the planet turned towards the World Cup, it seems only right that we should focus on a couple of South African films this week: but with Disgrace, all is not as it seems. It may be set in South Africa - and be based on J.M. Coetzee's Booker Prize-winning novel - but with Australian money behind the production, and an American star in the lead role, this is a more international effort than you might expect.

It's remarkable, then, that writer-director team Anna Maria Monticelli and Steve Jacobs manage to work their way so successfully under South Africa's skin. We've come to expect this kind of chameleon act from John Malkovich, but it's more than just his performance that creates the post-apartheid country on the screen - it's in almost every word and image.

Malkovich plays David Lurie, a professor of Romantic poetry in Cape Town who follows his Byronic instincts once too often, and falls foul of college scandal when he sleeps with one of his students. Does he abuse his position of authority? Almost certainly, but it's Malkovich's performance that makes the seduction truly creepy, indulging his cold passions with clinical detachment and a weary resignation.

As David's academic career starts to fall apart he retreats to the countryside, to visit his estranged daughter Lucy (Jessica Haines). Lucy runs a small flower farm on land that she shares with a black farmer, and David is immediately wary of the friction between their two cultures.

What might have been dismissed as David's racism soon becomes a reality, however, when they're attacked and abused by a group of young men, who lock David in the bathroom while they rape and assault his daughter. Emasculated and in fear for his life, David is forced to finally face up to what he's done, and Disgrace suggests some uncomfortable truths both for the future of its characters and for the future of the country itself.

John Malkovich is as spellbinding as you'd expect, turning his monstrous professor into a thoroughly despicable but surprisingly intriguing character study. It's a role filled with complexity and subtle nuance, and Malkovich uses his unique combination of arrogance and distance to impressive effect.

Jessica Haines is immediately engaging as Lucy too, and Disgrace builds satisfyingly to a dramatic climax that should have everyone reeling. At times it may be a little too cerebral and self-conscious for some tastes, but it's good to see Coetzee's outstanding novel turned into such a thought-provoking arthouse drama. I can't imagine the South African Tourist Board will be using it to promote World Cup travel, though.

4/5