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Let's get this straight from the outset: Inside is set in South Africa during the death throes of apartheid, but it is not specifically an apartheid film - rather, it is a film about incarceration, interrogation, psychological manipulation, torture and hatred. The prison cell and warden's office in this film could be transplanted into any one of a hundred historical or modern scenarios where powerful regimes seek to extract information from terrorists/freedom fighters (circle whichever is appropriate) by constant and brutal degradation. There's an added element here too: Kruger (Hawthorne) not only is a vicious racist, he also has a pathological, jealous hatred of Strydom (Stoltz), the educated, upper-class Afrikaaner boy who, to him, was born with it all and has rebuffed it in the name of 'guilty liberalism'. Consequently the boundaries of the Geneva Convention aren't just pushed or broken, they're completely shattered, and it makes for entrancing if disturbing on-screen viewing.It's very much a character-driven film and the three lead roles - Stoltz, Hawthorne and Gossett - all seem to relish the leeway and personal interpretation each role offers them. Hawthorne, a skilled actor, probably does best as Kruger, whose evil is more that of the Himmleresque bureaucrat than that of the ranting sadist. He also masters the difficult Afrikaaner accent too, something which Stoltz does competently but not quite as well. The limited sets and thematic scope of the film really thrust the characters onto a very finite centre stage and all seem to thrive: the scenes between Gossett and Hawthorne are tense and electric, while Stoltz's gradual capitulation to the psychological brutality of his captors is both intriguing and saddening.Inside is neither a true story nor one that attempts to address the broader issues of apartheid - and nor should it, for this is far too large a task for one film to do adequately. It's both a slice of time and a metaphor for a nation coming to terms with the thuggery and murderous hatred visited on some people by others, in the name of a shambolic political system but fundamentally driven by personal defects. Watch other films if you want to learn about apartheid, but watch Inside if you want to see a very good movie.
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