Inside

Returning to the cinematic screen after a hiatus of sorts, director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, Target) tackles the complex and gritty reality of apartheid and its aftermath in present-day South Africa. Penn's Inside provides a taut psychological examination of the relationship between political prisoner Marty Strydom (Stoltz) and his captor Colonel Kruger (Hawthorne). Initially set in South Africa in the late 1980s, the film begins with Strydom's arrest for conspiracy against the government, and the narrative slowly -- almost achingly so -- reveals the details of this university professor's internment. Unable to be brought to trial without official charges, Strydom endures the continuous mental and physical abuse of Kruger, whose own moral center has become irreparably twisted by a false sense of ethics. As Strydom's torture continues, it grows more intense, with Kruger convincing him that his prominent South African family and his girlfriend Christine (Eser) have turned against him for his actions. Complicating this carefully executed psychological drama is the shift between the late Eighties and the present-day political situation in South Africa, in which the “Truth Commission” has been established to interrogate former military and police officers who have committed crimes against political prisoners such as Strydom. Midway through the film, the narrative shifts to the present day and the actions of the commission as represented through the character of the Questioner (Gossett, Jr.). Moving back and forth through time, Inside slowly reveals the roles these men played in one another's lives. Penn's pacing of this story improves as it develops, so that by the conclusion of the film this triangular relationship erupts in a dramatic showdown. Nothing is as it seems during this time of political and racial unrest, and Bima Stagg's script, written after his departure from South Africa in 1990, carefully recreates this atmosphere of betrayal and hopelessness. Penn and cinematographer Jan Weincke play upon the sharp distinctions between those held inside prison walls and those left free on the outside as they shoot many scenes from the point of view of the prisoners, whose range of vision is severely limited to a minuscule opening in their cell doors. Penn's casting of Stoltz in such a demanding role seems to miss the mark, although acting powerhouses Hawthorne and Gossett, Jr. admirably carry the film. Despite Inside's slow-moving first half, the film's pacing and tension pick up, making the final act a bittersweet payoff for all three characters.