Affinity

Dir: Andrew Davies
UK/ Canada/Romania  2008  90mins

In the sumptuous tradition of costume drama comes an inspired film based on Sarah Water’s third book. Already thwarted in love, when her father dies, Margaret Prior’s hopes and dreams of escaping her rigid, upper middle class existence die with him.

Determined to channel her energy into something positive, she volunteers as a ‘lady visitor’ at Millbank, the notorious women’s prison. There she becomes infatuated with the luminous convict Selina Dawes. Before being incarcerated, Dawes had built a successful following as a spirit medium. Now, surrounded by her spirits, quietly spoken Dawes invests all her faith in the intelligent and frustrated Margaret. An affecting mystery and erotic romance with a gothic twist, Affinity perfectly conveys the Victorian’s obsession with the spiritual, and their experiments in the shadowy world of séances,
boisterous spirits and indecorous passion.

Johannesburg

• Sun 7 / 6.15pm
• Fri 12 / 8.30pm
• Sun 14 / 8.30pm

Cape Town

• Tue 16 / 8.45pm
• Fri 19 / 8.45pm
• Sun 21 / 6pm