Skin

The true story of a black girl born, through some genetic oddity, to white Afrikaaner parents in South Africa during apartheid. After her angry father (Sam Neill) fights to have her classified as white, Sandra Laing (played by Ella Ramangwane and then Sophie Okonedo) struggles with boarding school, prejudice from both blacks and whites, and her own confusion.

Nigel Andrews, Financial Times: A film as pallid as a problem-of-the-week television movie. Saved by liberation in 1994, Laing became a marked woman for the biopic industry. One is amazed Lord Attenborough did not rush in with bromides blazing. Instead we get this dull, stiltedly scripted potter through re-warmed liberal indignation and heart-on-sleeve emotion. (Verdict: two stars out of five)

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Director [Anthony] Fabian allows his scenes to unfold in a series of drab, restrictive ranch houses, tin shacks and courtrooms. The film feels totally unwilling to get its hands dirty, to tangle with anything approaching truth: mucky, messy, vibrant. In reducing its characters to archetypes, its politics to platitudes and its narrative to a glum historical lecture, Skin does not do justice to a fascinating tale. (Verdict: one star out of five) ·