'The Man Who Sold His Skin' is a drama centering around Sam and Abeer, a couple separated by the Syrian Civil War. As Sam is wrongfully arrested, he flees to Beirut whilst Abeer marries and sets off to live in Belgium. One night, Sam comes across Jeffrey Godefroi, a renowned artist who offers him a way out of Lebanon by asking him to agree to have a Schengen Visa tattooed on his back and to be displayed as a work of art. After Sam agrees, he travels to Brussels to reconnect with Abeer, but her husband Ziad finds out about the messages the two have exchanged, making it difficult for Abeer to reconnect with Sam.
As time goes on, Sam grows weary of his way of life, and at an auction, fakes a bomb scare and is imprisoned. After finally feeling like he has regained his freedom, Sam meets with his lawyer prior to his trial, where Abeer meets him as his sworn translator. Sam is not charged and is ordered to leave Belgium due to failing to extend his visa due to a missed appointment. Sam and Abeer are shown returning to Syria to start their lives together. Some time later, a video circulates of Sam being executed by terrorists, and his skin being sold as artwork. The film concludes by Sam on the phone with Jeffrey as the two reveal to have staged the execution and had grown a skin graft from Sam's cells to reproduce the artwork. The film ends on Sam and Abeer embracing as they look onto a sunset.
'The Man Who Sold His Skin' is a drama that presents a number of controversial issues including civil unrest, refugees, the intricacies of the art world and a complicated romance. Although the film touches on a number of potentially incendiary topics, it manages to combine and use all of the issues in a well expressed manner, presenting a well rounded story at the heart of which is Sam - a refugee working towards making his way in the world and ultimately striving to reconnect with Abeer.
At the centre of the story is Sam, played by Yahya Mahayni. The actor does well to present Sam as a desperate man, initially as he is imprisoned, later as he tries and fails to reconnect with Abeer and conclusively as he has to deal with living with the constraints that being a work of art entails. In a captivating manner, Mahayni presents the character as flawed, showing Sam’s shortcomings through him trying to save face as he lies to Abeer about having moved on, or when he grows frustrated in conversation with his mother. By the end of the story, Sam has progressed through a host of expressions of fear, frustration, sadness and sometimes even childish immaturity, making the character relatable in a way that allows the viewer to see that representation of the good and bad in everyone. Even though Sam is the protagonist, his struggle and the failure to cope with it can make him easy to dislike, yet ultimately Mahayni allows us to experience absolute joy, as by the end Sam is free and has a chance to start his life again with Abeer.
Dea Liane portrays Abeer, Sam’s love interest, that has felt pressure from her parents to marry and relocate to Brussels, as the civil war rages in her home country. Liane does well in representing Abeer as a woman caught between two worlds; - she has a sense of duty towards her family and her husband, yet it cannot be reconciled with the feelings she has for Sam. Her responsibilities hold her back from facing Sam, but eventually, she decides to leave her arranged marriage behind to seek a new life with Sam.
Koen De Bouw plays the artist provocateur Jeffrey Godefroi, and does so in an annoyingly accurate manner, as the character comes off as intelligent yet pompous, at times displaying genuine emotion in private, but always maintaining a certain facade in public. De Bouw is on screen for a few scenes, yet the actor manages to portray the character as someone who does embody the artistic spirit, yet has been moulded by the people within it, warping his sense of self representation and perhaps even showing signs of someone who is tired of the art scene due to its fickle and ever-changing nature.
‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ is a film that incorporates many elements, many of which should not blend together, yet Kaouther Ben Hania, the director and writer of the feature, has managed to meld together the art world with issues of civil unrest, refugeeism and love. All of the aforementioned play out to their full extent, as we are shown the devastating effects the war has had on Sam’s mother, the monotony and fear of the life that a refugee is in and the intimate revelations and developments that ultimately lead to Sam and Abeer’s reconnection.
Most prominently however, the film pokes fun at the art world, displaying the lack of respect towards individuals as it comes to ridiculing the upper echelons of society that get involved in fine art. Besides completely devaluing the person that sits behind the newest and hottest piece of art, the film highlights the solitude that results from being the wearer of the artwork and how the people behind buying and selling art have diminished Sam’s worth as an individual solely based on the price that others are willing to put up for it.
‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ is a captivating film that seamlessly blends together love, civil unrest and the art world. As the film covers a number of topics and ideas, the audience is taken on a whirl-wind ride, as we get to experience the ups and downs together with Sam, as he delights in trying to get to Abeer to sorrowfully mourning his own immaturity and coping with isolation. The film provides for truly heartfelt moments, yet also finds time and space to allow the audience to laugh, as we get to enjoy the hypocrisies and absurdism hidden in the individuals trying to maintain a presence in the art world.
Score: 4/4
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