The Man Who Sold His Skin (Arabic: الرجل الذي باع ظهره, romanized: ar-rajul allaḏī bāʿa ẓahrahu, lit. 'The Man Who Sold His Back') is a 2020 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. Its plot was inspired by Belgian contemporary artist Wim Delvoye's living work Tim (2006), which was in turn inspired by Roald Dahl's 1952 short story "Skin". It was selected as the Tunisian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films. In March 2021, it was nominated for the Best International Feature Film.
It premiered in the Horizons section at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, where Yahya Mahayni won the Best Actor Award.
Contents
Premise
Raqqa fiances Sam and Abeer are separated by the Syrian Civil War. While Sam seeks refuge in Lebanon, Abeer's family forces her to marry a richer man and move with him to Brussels. In the desperate pursuit of money and the needed paperwork to travel to Europe to rescue her, Sam accepts to have his back tattooed as a Schengen visa by one of the most controversial contemporary artists in the West. His own body turned into a living work of art and promptly exhibited in a museum. Sam will soon realize he has sold away more than just his skin.
Cast
Yahya Mahayni as Sam Ali
Dea Liane as Abeer
Koen De Bouw as Jeffrey Godefroi, the controversial artist
Monica Bellucci as Soraya Waldy, an art dealer
Saad Lostan as Ziad, Abeer's husband
Darina Al Joundi as Sam's mother
Jan Dahdouh as Hazem
Christian Vadim as William
Wim Delvoye as an insurance broker
Reception
Critical response
The Man Who Sold His Skin has an approval rating of 88% based on 52 professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Man Who Sold His Skin uses the tension between art and commerce as powerful fuel for a sobering story about freedom and human dignity." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 64 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.