Un mondo a parte

Jodhi May doesn't pay attention to what's going on about her in South Africa. That is, until her father, Jeroen Krabbe, flees the country, labeled a communist traitor, her mother, Barbara Hershey, is thrown into prison, and the girls at her private school start tormenting her.

It's one of several movies about the impact of South African apartheid in the late 1980s, but this one is a bit different. Instead of being centered more on the struggle itself, Miss May, the viewpoint character, is more an unwilling witness to the fact that while it's nice to be well-to-do, not everyone can blithely accept that, especially the disenfranchised and those with a sense of justice. The performances are excellent, but even though Miss May's journey from an easy childhood to a committed adulthood is a difficult one, it hardly raises my sympathy, as it clearly is meant to.