Set in politically uncertain post-apartheid South Africa in the early '90s, with the rural Cape Town as its backdrop, the film Disgrace tells the story of David Lurie, a well-regarded university professor who loses his job over an affair with a “coloured” student named Melanie. Unemployed and restless, he retreats to his daughter Lucy’s stunningly barren farm on the Eastern Cape.

During his visit, the pair endure a violent encounter that will change them forever – Lucy is raped and left pregnant (with family and friends worried she has contracted AIDS), and David is unable to protect her, both during the ordeal and later when she feels she must keep the baby. Threaded throughout the story is the shifting balance of power between white and black South Africans, symbolised by Lucy's relationship with her suspiciously blasé black neighbour Petrus.

Some audience members might find these themes confronting, but the film’s Australian director, Steve Jacobs, thinks otherwise. “I don’t find the film controversial at all,” he bluntly states.

However, Jacob’s wife Anna-Maria Monticelli, who is also the film’s screenwriter, believes women may find the details of the story hard to deal with: “Women and men probably have different opinions. Some women will find keeping a child from rape quite controversial – young women, especially, can’t quite fathom that,” she says.

Disgrace is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name by the media-shy author J.M. Coetzee. When Monticelli was chosen to turn the story into a film, Coetzee, who now lives in South Australia after emigrating from South Africa in 2002, was adamant he didn’t want to engage in time-consuming negotiations over the script.

“Coetzee was very clear that he didn’t want to get involved. He told me to just write what I thought was best and then said it will be up to him to see whether he’s happy with it,” says Monticelli.

Monticelli and Jacobs, who previously worked together on La Spagnola (2001), were inspired to turn the book into a film because of the story’s honesty.

“I immediately loved the story when I first read it, as I think a lot of people do,” says Monticelli. “It is such a challenging book. You never quite knew where it was going to go, and I think that often when you read books you get an impression of how it's going to end. But with this book it was just so complex and so incredibly real about people and the hypocrisy of man. I just felt that Coetzee really understood men and their faults and was really honest about it.”

The duo initially offered the leading role of David Lurie to Ralph Fiennes, but by the time the financing for the film was secured the British actor had committed himself to other projects. Their next choice was Oscar nominee John Malkovich.

“We chose Malkovich because he’s got a good range. We know that. He has a believability that suits the role. He was the right age, good actor, well read, he’s smart. Those are things you can’t really fake,” says Monticelli.

“We also thought Being John Malkovich was very realistic,” jokes Jacobs. “But seriously, if you’re reading poetry and you really don’t know what it’s about you can’t fake it. There’s not a hell of a lot of actors that have that sort of background, and who are unapologetic, which is important because he’s go to do some pretty shocking things.”

Malkovich is the only Hollywood actor in the film. Conversely, Jessica Haines, who tackles the challenging role of Lucy, is new to the world of cinema.

“We chose her simply for her ability to do the role. That was it. We looked at a lot of people for that role. Jessica, apart from being South African, had the right combination of strength, naivety and believability,” says Jacobs, who selected Antoinette Engel, who plays Melanie - the character David Lurie has an affair with - for similar reasons.

“The role of Melanie was an enormously difficult one. We spent months and months looking for someone. Antoinette's got the right element of being from the country, slightly bewildered by it all and intimidated into doing something she doesn't want to do. It's very hard to find a young person who can do that because a lot of young women are much more assertive and would not be put into that position or used in such a manner,” says Jacobs.

It took Jacobs only one day to locate the film's spectacular rural setting, near the Cederberg Nature Reserve east of Cape Town.

“I hired a location scout named Etienne and he drew a semi-circle around Cape Town pointing out the options. We drove like maniacs and I found the farm in one day. Didn’t drink any water all day, mind you.

“So we were driving around Citrusdal and I saw this deserted peach orchid that was dying off. I asked Etienne to stop the car and we got out and looked down and saw the view that you see for a lot of the film. We could’ve easily driven past it. I knew what I needed and suddenly things came together, not all of the boxes were ticked – of the ten boxes I had seven or eight,” says Jacobs.

The film's cast and crew predominantly consisted of Australians and South Africans. Monticelli says a common work ethic and sense of humour meant there was a mutual respect on the set.

Jacobs and Monticelli, who repeatedly finished each others sentences throughout my interview with them, treat each other as allies in an industry motivated significantly by money. 

“What we’ve realised in this business is that you need allies, you need support. It’s very hard to make a film on your own without someone helping you,” says Monticelli. “The role of a director is a very lonely one. He has everything in his mind and the money people don’t quite get it and push for certain things. It could be a very torturous journey. If you have allies, people that understand you, they can help you alleviate the problems.”

Jacobs is equally grateful for being able to work with his spouse: “If I have a doubt, Anna will pick up on it. And if she has a doubt, I’ll pick up on it. Then we’ll discuss it, see the pros and cons of it. We’ve both had different experiences of getting to where we are, but there’s a lot of similarities there as well. Our careers are entwined. So if the film’s good it reflects on our next one.”

Given the pair's penchant for “tough” stories, audiences should expect something challenging and affecting for their next one.

Disgrace is released in Australia on June 18, 2009, and New Zealand on October 1, 2009. The film is also showing at the Sydney Film Festival and New Zealand International Film Festival.