CORK CINE CLUB PRESENTS ‘BEAUTY (Skoonheid)’
ON THURSDAY 8 NOVEMBER
Screening in St. John’s Central College at 8pm

Cork Cine Club presents Beauty (Skoonheid) on Thursday 8 November at 8pm in St. John’s Central College.

Beauty is a ferociously powerful yet subtle and complex film about an South African man leading a double-life.   Francois (Deon Lotz) gives into his sexuality when an attractive younger man moves in next door and finds his obsession leading him in a dark, troubling direction.

Francois seems to be an ordinary, happily married, and respectable citizen.  But beneath the surface Francois seethes with resentment.  As an Afrikaner, he distrusts and dislikes the blacks who have risen to political power since the end of apartheid, and while he’s openly homophobic, he’s sexually attracted to men and takes part in periodic group sex sessions with other white, married men.

While attending his daughter’s wedding, Francois sees Christian (Charlie Keegan), the handsome twenty-something son of a long-time family friend, and he quickly becomes obsessed as he struggles with his desires. Francois is attracted to Christian, but he also sees in him a man who is comfortable with himself and the world around him, and his lust eventually gives way to a hatred that seems poised to explode into violence.

Deon Lotz turns in a powerhouse performance, at once tense, heart-rending and repulsive in a devastating film that uses sexuality as a metaphor for South Africa’s fractured dysfunction.

Beauty  (Skoonheid).   Director: Oliver Hermanus.  South Africa, 2011.  98 minutes.   Cert: CLUB.  Language: Afrikaans (subtitled).  Starring: Deon Lotz, Charlie Keegan and Michelle Scott.
See www.corkcineclub.com, Facebook and Twitter for trailers, reviews and more. Tickets, €8.50/€7 (includes Cine Club membership), are sold at the door. Foreign language films are subtitled.
Other Cork Cine Club films in Season Seven to be shown in St. John’s Central College are:  Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) on 15 Nov;  Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey) on 22 Nov; Le Havre (France) on 29 Nov; Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Band (USA) on 6 Dec; The Kid With a Bike (France) on 13 Dec.
Cork Cine Club is supported by access>CINEMA, a resource organization for regional cultural cinema, and by The Arts Council of Ireland.
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Cork Cine Club

Cork Cine Club presents BEAUTY, Thu 8 Nov

Cork Cine Club presents BEAUTY, Thu 8 Nov