Country of My Skull (2004)

Synopsis: A poet watches the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in South Africa and meets an American journalist covering the event. They become friends despite (or because of?) their initial differences of opinion.

Appraisal: In the background are the hearings -- people telling their stories, crying, pleading amnesty. This poet and this journalist and their relationship are in the foreground; then there is this subplot of the interviews with the perpetrator and his revelations. These elements eventually converge. The purpose of the film, as I see it, is to show a particular moment of a nation where a transition is occurring. It is not fully successful, I think; the choice of central characters is misguided, as they are not where the core of the nation's drama is. Basically, this film is about a rich white woman whose main problem is the "shock" of discovering the things she never looked at when they took place; although I wouldn't dream of passing judgement on her, it's hard to see her as an interesting character.

Note: I saw it on TV; the scenes with Langston in the U.S.A. (before he flies to Africa) were not present on the version I watched; also absent were all the "shits" and "fucks", a fact which ironically echoes a scene in the movie itself.

Rating: 44