Movie reviews

الرجل الذي باع ظهره (THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN)

Recommended. The 2020 Tunisian Oscar nominee is a multilayered and rich in context work of art. It adopts meticulous framing, e.g. the staircase where in the reflection she's standing next to him, not in front, constantly changing palettes where the clothing always writes into the background. Cinematographer Christopher Aoun, known for earlier "کفرناحوم" ("Capharnaum") is behind the pictures. It's also a tale about refugees, freedom of movement and the question of who owns your body. The view of art and humanity is original and ambiguous. But the film itself is a series of cinematographic paintings. References to animal fur - once painted for art, once natural, shift your perceptions both ways. As for the human, is it economic freedom or violence? His mother's body becomes altered too, which is in a way also forced by the political situation. On the other hand, who has sold their body more - he or his girlfriend? His anger erupts physically but only in the light of a surgery, yet when he scares people in the limelight, there's no explosion. That scene is also the most provocative in the film. The art-bearer's role? He's not hired to act, just to be there and represent his social status. He's to sit still, like a statue. His gown looks like luxurious packaging. The question of the price of work or of a bounty on your head is tackled - what comprises of one sentence in the movie, provides lots of food for thought. The twists of action in the finale are even transcendental, posthumanist. Modern art conveys meanings. Here it does so profusely. 

It's worth pausing to rethink the movie taking into account some real life contexts. Firstly, artist Santiago Sierra once tattooed a line across bodies of 6 deprived men and lined them up. Secondly, when I worked as a gallery assistant, I would wear uniforms of various colours, sometimes to the exhibition, and once I was taken for part of one by a perplexed visitor. Thirdly, in an art video called "Security Measures" my colleague undergoing uniform measuring by a tailor became an artwork. Fourthly, artists themselves commonly use their bodies to create art, Joanna Rajkowska once even displayed and sold substances obtained from hers. Fourthly, having your body marked is associated with a stigma and the Visa card number brings associations with concentration camp tattooed numbers. Fifthly, certain pervert obtained corpses of Chinese prisoners, skinned them, put them in formalin and toured the world with his "Bodies" exhibition. Sixthly, "The Square" featured a catering scene which resonates with two sequences in "الرجل الذي باع ظهره" (The Man Who Sold His Skin"). Seventhly, South Koreans beautify themselves even to the point of undergoing plastic operations for the sake of career. Eighthly, "کفرناحوم" ("Capharnaum") was filmed with protagonists whisked out from the city. The boy actor, زين الرافعي (Zain Al Raffeea) later appeared in Marvel's "The Eternals". So it's also a rags-to-riches-with-an-artist's-help case. Finally, Tim, who inspired the movie letting an artist use his body similarly, got petty money for it. These 9 contexts shed different lights on the film, don't they?