Disgrace

Disgrace is a 2008 Australian film, based on J. M. Coetzee's 1999 novel of the same name. It was adapted for the screen by Anna Maria Monticelli and directed by her husband Steve Jacobs. Starring American actor John Malkovich and South African newcomer Jessica Haines, it tells the story of a South African university professor in the post-apartheid era who moves to his daughter's Eastern Cape farm when his affair with a student costs him his position. The film received generally positive reviews. 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. After a brief sojourn in Cape Town, he returns to the farm to find that Lucy is pregnant and that Petrus is steadily increasing his control over the property. One of the rapists has taken up residence with Petrus, and turns out to be his brother-in-law. Despite David's outrage, Lucy insists on not taking the matter to the authorities, and states that she will bear the child. Petrus offers to "marry" her and she agrees in order to come under his protection. David must come to terms with the new South Africa.