Disgrace (2008) poster
2008 · crime · drama · political

Disgrace

Directed by Steve Jacobs2h 0m2008
ElsewhereIMDb6.56kRT83%Metacritic71
  • heavy
  • measured
  • intense
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, measured crime / drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.

Our read · Disgrace (2008) reads as a heavy, measured, grounded crime · drama · political entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
Where to watch
Not on streaming here right now.Check JustWatch Check Letterboxd
More info & search links
Fingerprint

The shape of Disgrace

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a stark post-apartheid drama about disgrace, power, and dignity.

ends bittersweetit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 25attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsexual violencegraphic violenceanimal harmnudity

Skip it tonightSkip if farm attack, rape, and moral fallout will wreck your evening.

If Disgrace is your film
A Dry White Season (1989)
white South African confronts apartheid violence
(if courtroom drama feels too procedural)
The Power of One (1992)
boy's moral awakening amid South African racism
(if coming-of-age framing feels lighter)
Tsotsi (2005)
redemption and humanity in post-apartheid township
(if you need Western perspective)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself