Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania

Stars: Yahya Mahayni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw, Monica Belluci

In the myth of Pygmalion, the Cypriot sculptor falls in love with a statue he made of ivory and as a reward from the goddess Aphrodite the statue will be revived and given the name Galatea. In The Man Who Sold His Skin by Tunisian director and screenwriter Kaouther Ben Hania, the opposite happens to the protagonist - instead of becoming a man, he is turned into a work of art.

The story in The Man Who Sold His Skin is inspired by a bizarre event in the world of contemporary art. In 2008, Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye tattooed Tim Steiner on his back, and at that point he became a living artefact - sold to a German collector for millions, he must sit in a gallery at least three times a year, and after his death, the skin must be removed and framed.

In Ben Hania's film, fugitive Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) waits for a visa to leave for Brussels after the outbreak of the Syrian war. After a chance meeting with art dealer Soraya Valdi (Monica Bellucci), the big art star Jeffrey Godfrey (Koen De Bouw) agrees to have a Schengen visa tattooed on his back so that he can travel freely through European galleries as a work of art. Godfrey, as portrayed in the media, is "the most expensive living artist who turns worthless objects into multimillion-dollar art" and is the incarnation of Delvoye, who also appears in the film. Jeffrey uses his despair and position for artistic purposes - the fugitive can move more freely if he is classified as a ware.

The art that Sam carries on his back is the only way to gain some of the freedom he dreams of as a refugee. But he is treated as an object, as an art of the privileged class; exploited and powerless to withdraw from the contract he signed.

The key scene where Sam is "exposed" at auction is reminiscent of the one in the Swedish film "Square" by Ruben Östlund. It does not take long for the audience to show their prejudices and fears - for them, he is still a terrorist and a suicide bomber. In Östlund’s film it is a matter of satire and critique of contemporary art, conformism, class division and the role of the passive observer is challenged, while in The Man Who Sold His Skin it is more a commentary on the situation; it also builds a love story, speaks about migration, Europe's attitude towards refugees over the past decade, their exploitation and the passivity and the cynicism of the Western world. Though the director themselfbecomes part of that world. What bothers me the most, is that she builds the story through stereotypes about both the refugees and the art world and that she starts several parallel stories and builds characters that are, more often than not, redundant.

The film features fascinating shots of Sam walking through The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, passing in one scene, past Delvoye's luxuriously painted pigs set between the works of Piter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch, through which he intervenes in the permanent setting and reinterprets different historical styles.

The end of the film somewhat trivializes the story, but it is still an achievement that reminds us how much our freedom is worth and what we are ready to sacrifice for that freedom.

The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film and is the first Tunisian film to enter the top five in the competition for the award.