Many films shot in South Africa dealing with Apartheid tend to be sensationalistic and focus on the atrocities and not the stories of the people involved. IN MY COUNTRY thankfully avoids this route. Juliette Binoche is excellent as Anna Malan and though her English accent falters at times her Afrikaans accent is impeccable. The film is emotionally realistic, well crafted all round and the entire casts performance (including the supporting cast) is excellent, probably because of the subject matter.

IN MY COUNTRY is for the serious movie buff and dare I say it for the intelectualratti. Though it would be intersting for kids who have just started high school to watch IN MY COUNTRY. The subject of Apartheid and its consequences is a difficult subject to speak about in South Africa and at times not so much an unspoken taboo but an unspoken awkwardness. There was also this weird awkwardness after the post-Apartheid era when the hearings took place and IN MY COUNTRY captures it. The movie is a good movie and should be watched on its merits but its being plugged as a brilliant movie because it's about Apartheid and that detracts from the film.

IN MY COUNTRY is a good movie and if you want to watch a good movie then watch it, if you're looking for brilliant then you will have to wait because brilliant doesn't happen every month or even year.

CAST: Samuel L. Jackson, Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi Ngubane and Sam Ngakane 
DIRECTOR: John Boorman 
RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes
AGE RESTICTION: PGL
GENRE: Drama
RELEASE DATE: N/A
RATING: 7/10

“It's Good But Overated Because Of The Subject Matter”

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Review by Punjabi_Goth for Africasgateway.com

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