Only three days more, and the winners of the 2021 Oscars will be announced. For the first time in its history, Tunisia has a film named in the best international film category.
Among the five films named in this category, i.e. Drunk (Denmark), Better Days (Hong Kong), Collective (Romania), The Man Who Sold His Skin/The Man who sold his skin (Tunisia) and Quo vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina), this is the film The man who sold his skin Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, who deserves, in my opinion, to win the famous statuette, because not only does he deal with a very interesting subject, but above all because it is very well done.
Synopsis: To escape war, Sam Ali, a sensitive and impulsive young Syrian, has left his country for Lebanon. To be able to travel to Europe and live with the love of his life, he agrees to get his back tattooed by one of the most sulphurous contemporary artists in the world. Transforming his own body into a prestigious work of art, Sam will however realize that his decision could actually signify something other than freedom.
The man who sold his skin is appointed to the Oscar 2021 for the best international film
The man who sold his skin Was largely shot in Tunisia, with the main roles the young Syrian actor Yahya Mahayni (Prix for Best Actor at the Venice Festival, Horizons section, for this role), Dea Liane, Koen de Bouw and the beautiful Italian actress Monica Bellucci.
Presenting his film, Kaouther Ben Hania said: ” the project of The man who sold his skin was born from the meeting between two worlds. The world of contemporary art, and more particularly the work of the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye (TIM, 2006) and the world of political refugees-in particular Syrian refugees, their fight with travel documents and residence permits … I have indeed wondered: “What would happen if a famous artist proposed to a refugee to become his work of art to solve his freedom of movement? ». Thus was born the trip of Sam Ali, a passionate young refugee thrown into a cynical world. An ordinary man in the face of an extraordinary adventure. The film is also a love story where the protagonist is separated from the woman he loves, and he tries to recover even if he has to lose his dignity and his skin in the process. Or what does it mean to be free when the game is already rigged, when you don’t have much choice? The man who sold his skin is an allegory on the personal freedom of a person in an unequal system addressing a broader meaning of our problems in the real world. »»
Therefore inspired by a real fact, The man who sold his skin Takes several subjects, and asks many questions. What is very original is that the director does it by essentially linking two very different themes that were not made to meet. By taking them on each other, she gives a reflection on the condition of refugees and on contemporary art.
So here is Sam Ali, born on the wrong side of the borders, who to be able to go to Europe to join his beloved agree to get a huge Schengen visa on his back. This visa so expensive and so inaccessible for the vast majority of citizens of the world.
Paradoxically, this visa tattooed on the back, granting Sam Ali the freedom to move, travel and cross borders, transform it at the same time into object and commodity, the young man who agreed to expose his back in art galleries and museums. Status which will also be confirmed from the advertising photo session: Sam Ali is asked to lower her head. Sam Ali is no longer a person, he has no more identity, he is not an entire body, he is only a back. On which the artist’s head was grafted. As a signature. The artist’s signature on his work.
Sam Ali is only a back, on which the artist’s head was grafted …
Sam Ali knew, by accepting this market, what was he going to submit?
Obviously not, but did he have a choice?
It was only by arriving in Europe that Sam Ali will realize his situation. He will realize the violence exerted on him. Symbolic violence on his skin and his body, but also moral violence since he becomes a work of art, therefore an object. But what is a work of art? Can we go beyond respect for human life for art? Can we transgress all limits in the name of art?
By taking the right to exploit human beings, and even to buy and sell them, this artistic elite, this European intelligentsia which believes itself to be superior, has it itself lost its humanity?
Was this art pushed to the extreme, to the point of overcoming humans?
These themes are new to Tunisian cinema. Which surprised foreign and Tunisian. The first being surprised and sometimes even jealous that Tunisian dared to tackle themes that they believed reserved only for Westerners and the second reproaching the film for not reflecting Tunisian reality and concerns.
“” All my films were made in Tunisia, except perhaps Zaineb doesn’t like snow (2016) that I filmed in Tunisia and Canada. The man who sold his skin Imposed itself with me, it is an international story. I live in Paris which is a cosmopolitan city, I travel a lot, so it is normal that I tell an international story. History is imposed on me, I write it, it doesn’t matter whether it is Tunisian or not. I tell people, not places. People who have human stories, the place is only the context “Said Kaouther Ben Hania.
Besides, why should a cinema stick to a country or a group of people. Can’t he just be human? Obviously yes, and that’s what Kaouther Ben Hania proved through this universal and humanist film.
The director therefore told her story, but she knew how to do it in an original way, using their own writing. She knew how to give an aesthetic and a form to her film, which also makes it a work of art. It adapted the shape to the bottom. And that is also what gives its strength to the film.
Since her beginnings, the director has given each of her stories or films, her own style and her own shape. When filmed inside a museum or an art gallery, what could be more logical than adapting to the place and theme and film as if we were painting?
At the start of the film, Kaouther Ben Hania used an immaculate white, sanitized, almost inhuman, but which strangely recalls this cold atmosphere of certain museums of contemporary art. Employees who, without any emotion, hang the works on the walls are more like robots than men. Like these collectors and art merchants, who themselves are without feelings, without state of mind, ready to make money, speculate, strut, discuss the value of a work of art while ignoring the human. The replica of the insurer who would prefer that Sam Ali died of cancer rather than in the explosion of a bomb is very significant. For him, the life of Sam Ali has no importance, what matters is to preserve the work of art intact, therefore the back.
Also to recall the world of art, throughout the film, while paying particular attention to colors, lights and aesthetics, not only the characters often evolve in museums and art galleries, but in addition, we very often see them in frames (doors, mirrors, windows, grids …), as if they were themselves paintings exposed in a gallery or a museum.
Director Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha, one of the film’s co -producers, en route to Hollywwod.
In addition to this aesthetic aspect, what Kaouther Ben Hania did in this film is architectural work. To express her thought, she built her film as an architect would do. Each detail is in its place and has its importance. Strictly nothing is left to chance. Each plane, each color, each movement, each sentence … has a meaning. Without forgetting the magnificent music, composed by Amine Bouhafa.
It is precisely this aspect of the film which makes it exceptional and which, in my opinion, gives it the most likely to win the Oscar for the best international film. Originality of words but above all of form and writing. What is missing from the four other films named to the Oscar, which, although approaching important and very interesting themes, still remain very classic in their treatment.
There 93rd Oscar ceremony Will be held on the night of April 25/26, 2021 and will take place exceptionally outdoors at the Union Station, Los Angeles and the Dolby Theater, Hollywood.
List of Oscars 2021 appointments:
Best film:
- The Father
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Mank
- Minar
- Nomadland
- Promising Young Woman
- Sound of metal
- The seven of Chicago
Best actor:
- Rice Ahmed (Sound of Metal)
- Chadwick Boseman (The Blues of My Rainey)
- Anthony Hopkins (The Father)
- Gary Oldman (Mank)
- Steven Yeun (Minari)
Best actress:
- Viola Davis (the blues of my Rainey)
- Andra Day (The Us Vs Billie Holiday)
- Vanessa Kirby (pieces of a woman)
- Frances McDormand (Nomadland)
- Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)
Best actor in a supporting role:
- Sacha Baron Cohen (the seven of Chicago)
- Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah)
- Leslie Odom Jr (One Night in Miami)
- Paul Raci (Sound of Metal)
- Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah)
Best actress in a supporting role:
- Maria Bakalova (Borat 2)
- Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy)
- Olivia Coleman (The Father)
- Amanda Seyfried (Mank)
- Yoon Yeo-Jeong (Minari)
Best director:
- Thomas VINTERBERG (Drunk)
- David Fincher (Mank)
- Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)
- Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
- Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
Best animated film:
- Ahead
- Voyage to the moon
- Shaun Le Mouton: the counter-attack farm
- Drunk
- The wolf people
Best animated short film:
- Burrow
- Genius LOCI
- If Anything Happens I Love You
- Opera
- Yes-People
Best suitable scenario:
- Borat 2
- The Father
- Nomadland
- One Night in Miami
- The White Tiger
Best original scenario:
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Minar
- Promising Young Woman
- Sound of metal
- The seven of Chicago
Best photograph:
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Mank
- News of the World
- Nomadland
- The seven of Chicago
Best documentary:
- Collective
- CRIP Camp
- The Mole Agent
- My Octopus Teacher
- Time
Best documentary short film:
- Colette
- A Concerto is a conversation
- Do not split
- Hunger Ward
- A Love Song for Latasha
Best fictional short film:
- Feeling through
- The Letter Room
- The present
- Distant Strangers Two
- White Eye
Best foreign film:
- Drunk
- Better Days
- Collective
- The Man Who Sold His Skin/The Man who sold his skin
- Quo vadis, Aida?
Best editing:
- The Father
- Nomadland
- Promising Young Woman
- Sound of metal
- The seven of Chicago
Best sound:
- Grayhound
- Mank
- News of the World
- Drunk
- Sound of metal
Best sets:
- The Father
- The blues of my Rainey
- Mank
- News of the World
- Tenet
Best original music:
- DA 5 Bloods
- Mank
- Minar
- News of the World
- Drunk
Best original song:
- “Fight for you” (Judas and the Black Messiah)
- “Hear My Voice” (the seven of Chicago)
- “Husavik” (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga)
- “Io if” (life in front of you)
- “Speak now” (One Night in Miami)
Best hairstyles and makeup:
- Emma
- Hillbilly Elegy
- The blues of my Rainey
- Mank
- Pinocchio
Best costumes:
- Emma
- The blues of my Rainey
- Mank
- Mulan
- Pinocchio
Best special effects:
- Love and Monsters
- The Midnight Sky
- Mulan
- The One and Only Ivan
- Tenet
Cross your fingers for our Tunisian film, which really deserves to win the Oscar for the best international film!
Neïla Driss
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