(2012, 87 min)
Country: South Africa
Director: Oliver Hermanus
Studio: TLA Releasing
SYNOPSIS: Francois van Heerden is a white, Afrikaans-speaking family man in his mid-40s. Francois has become devoid of any care or concern for his own measure of happiness, and so convinced of his ill-fated existence, that he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter with another man unravels his clean and precisely controlled life. A raw, honest and highly acclaimed International gay thriller, Beauty was awarded the Queer Palm Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and went on to become South Africa's official submission to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. This one is not to be missed.
REVIEW:
Set in the beautiful backdrop of South Africa, Beauty is an intimately intense portrait of Francois (the amazing Deon Lotz) who is a dutiful, middle-aged husband and father. He fumes with resentment longing for the past, his loveless marriage and harboring a secret of being attracted to other men. However, that does not stop the family man from sneaking off to an isolated farmhouse to partake in an orgy with other white, married men.
While hosting his daughter’s wedding, charming, young and studly Christian (Charlie Keegan) approaches the proud father and something snaps inside Francois. He embarks on a dark, unwavering journey of obsession that leads to a shocking and graphic conclusion. Lotz is utterly amazing as Francois who subtly fills with bitter jealousy and tragically unravels in front of our eyes.
Winner of the Queer Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Beauty exposes the ugliness within a homophobic society by challenging us to feel the struggle and self-loathing of a vastly complex character.
-- Kelly Burkhardt, TLA Video (http://www.tlavideo.com)
