Disgrace (2008 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Disgrace is a film adapted for the screen by Anna Maria Monticelli from the 1999 J. M. Coetzee novel, Disgrace. The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Prize of the International Critics.
Plot summary
David Lurie (John Malkovich) is an ageing white professor teaching Romantic literature at an unnamed university in Cape Town shortly after the end of apartheid. David has an affair with one of his students, Melanie Isaacs (Antoinette Engel). University officials learn of the incident and bring David before a disciplinary board. David's colleagues offer him a quiet exit to save face, but he brashly affirms his guilt and refuses to admit wrongdoing, forcing the board to punish him more harshly.
David takes refuge with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Haines), who owns a farm in the Eastern Cape. At first, the two experience harmony and Lurie finds peace with himself, though he grows suspicious of Lucy's farm manager, Petrus (Eriq Ebouaney). One day, David and Lucy are attacked by three men, who rape Lucy. David goes through a crisis, not knowing how to cope with his personal and family tragedies. He is also confused by the newfound guilt he suddenly feels about these rapes. In a movement toward penance, David goes back to his former student's home to beg for forgiveness from her and her family.
Cast
- John Malkovich as David Lurie, a university professor
- Jessica Haines as Lucy, David's daughter, a farmer in the Eastern Cape
- Eriq Ebouaney as Petrus, a worker on Lucy's farm
- Fiona Press as Bev Shaw, head of an animal refuge
- Antoinette Engel as Melanie Isaacs, a university student
- David Dennis as Mr Isaacs, Melanie's father
