Skin Deep delves into a fantastical exploration of what it describes as the fragile construct of the “so-called” self. Based on a conceit where people at a therapeutic island commune are given the opportunity to swap bodies with others, Alex Schaad’s feature debut doesn’t dwell on the specifics of this process, but rather how experiencing life through someone else’s skin impacts the fragile and vulnerable participants.
Like Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, where humans were compelled to transform into animals if they didn’t couple up, the mechanism to achieve the body swaps here remains hazy. Established by a brain expert, who’s found dead in the film’s first opening scene by his daughter while they are, unfortunately, occupying each other’s bodies, the swaps seem closer to ecstatic religious experience than scientific experimentation. Despite an early outdoor lottery scene that feels like a more benevolent version of the selection process in Get Out, there’s no brain surgery here. Instead, participants ceremoniously submerge in pools within a towering, white monolithic structure, and voilà.
Waking up in new bodies requires a period of acclimation, during which time speech and motor skills are regained slowly, considering the unfamiliarity of the flesh they possess. But it’s the emotional impact that’s less predictable and far more profound. Leyla (Mala Emde), an old college friend of the founder’s daughter, is drawn to the island because she’s deeply unhappy. Her partner, Tristan (Jonas Dassler, a thoughtful creative type who has an affinity for the guitar, doesn’t really know what goes on at this place. When he and Leyla are chosen to swap with the boorish Mo (Dimitrij Schaad, brother of the director who also co-wrote the script) and alluring Fabienne (Maryam Zaree), Tristan’s the only one who seems to struggle with the psychological impact of the situation.
While Mo enjoys Tristan’s fitter body and Fabienne notes that the things feel a bit darker and heavier in Leyla’s body, Tristan mostly just feels confused. But Leyla finds true transcendence, finally liberated from the biochemical processes that have kept her melancholic for so long. When Tristan pulls the plug on the swap, as each member is given the right to abort the arrangement without question, Leyla resents him as she again feels the crushing weight of existence within her body of origin. Refusing to leave the commune, she arranges a swap with Roman (Thomas Wodianka), a hirsute middle-aged man who was the companion of the deceased founder. This leaves Tristan to reconcile his love for his girlfriend with the bearded, muscled vessel she occupies.
Despite its fantasy sci-fi premise, Skin Deep acts as a poignant mind-bending meditation on depression, grief, trauma, identity, sexual fluidity and the persistent desire for transcendence. Though the daughter of the founder, Stella (Edgar Selge) asserts that “you are who you are because of the body you have,” there’s a sense of half-truth there. Tristan loves Leyla despite her body, or perhaps even because of it to some degree, given her newfound vibrance as a result of the liberation she has found. And yet Roman’s grief is compounded by living in Leyla’s depression-prone body, ruining nine years of sobriety and essentially giving up on life in the process, in part because of the body he has. With impressive performances from the principal cast, who each believably play at least two distinct characters at various times, the lines between physical, mental and emotional identities are intriguingly blurred throughout the film. While Skin Deep raises questions it doesn’t attempt to answer, there’s beauty in watching Leyla’s body-hopping journey ultimately lead to truly finding herself.
Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber
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