I came into this movie about halfway through, but didn't need a synopsis to know what was going on. Like most movies about racial prejudice and the violence that it can inspire, you think about how the reviewers would sanction the portrayals of the villains as "too one-dimensional, caricatures of stock rednecks or South Afrikaaners," which is what I thought they were, especially when I saw Joss Ackland, Andrew Divoff and Sean Pertwee, who have all played similar roles before.
The most shocking thing to discover is that this is based on a true story, which renders most critiques as moot and irrelevant. Even more amazing is that this took place on a Russian ship. With the history of persecution amongst their own people, you would think they'd be the last ones to commit such an atrocity. But no one needs to find an object of persecution more than the persecuted, and that certainly doesn't excuse what happened, whether it adequately explains it or not.
In any case, I stuck it out until the end, and couldn't have been happier to see that the crew was prosecuted by the French authorities. It is a tale that needs to be seen more widely, as a cautionary story that warns us all that prejudice and the virulence it breeds is universal, and comes in any language, any background, no matter where or who you are.
The most shocking thing to discover is that this is based on a true story, which renders most critiques as moot and irrelevant. Even more amazing is that this took place on a Russian ship. With the history of persecution amongst their own people, you would think they'd be the last ones to commit such an atrocity. But no one needs to find an object of persecution more than the persecuted, and that certainly doesn't excuse what happened, whether it adequately explains it or not.
In any case, I stuck it out until the end, and couldn't have been happier to see that the crew was prosecuted by the French authorities. It is a tale that needs to be seen more widely, as a cautionary story that warns us all that prejudice and the virulence it breeds is universal, and comes in any language, any background, no matter where or who you are.