How much of you is really you? Are you a product of free will and your choices, or is something else guiding your life? How does the body shape the mind and our outlook on the world? If you were to be given a different body altogether, in what ways would that change you?These are only some of the many fascinating and profound questions that are excavated in writer-director Alex Schaad’s incisive feature debutSkin Deep, which takes full advantage of the potential to befound in the body-swap film. The winner of the Queer Lion Award at the 2022Venice Film Festival, it represents the best ofscience fictionin how it uses the genre to explore the characters and identity itself as they find themselves rethinking almost everything they’ve come to know in their lives.
At first glance, Leyla and Tristan seem like a happy young couple. But when they travel to a mysterious, remote island, a game of identities begins, which changes everything.
What Is ‘Skin Deep’ About?
This begins first with death. We observe an older man looking at the body of a young woman lying on a bed. Realizing they are dead, the man can only utter “Papa” in sadness before we are ripped away to the nightmare of Leyla (Mala Emde) who is drowning. When she awakens, she shares a small yet sweet moment with her boyfriend Tristan (Jonas Dassler) who does not want to wake her even as she is lying on his arm. We then see they are on a boat to a remote island where, among many other things, they will have the chance to change bodies with the others who have traveled there. The “man” we saw at the beginning? They are actually Stella, Leyla’s friend from college, who has invited them there to take part in this incredible ritual. The mechanics of this involve a random lottery followed by a trip inside a towering structure that has an almost religious significance to the residents of the island. When they emerge from it, both Tristan and Leyla will see the world through new eyes, further complicating their loving yet fraught relationship. While in conversation with elements of theexpansive body horror subgenre,the emphasis is on the thrilling transformative potential of these changes rather than simply the fear we typically have surrounding them. It is in this that Schaad, along with his co-writer and brotherDimitrij Schaadwho also co-stars, gently yet decisively challenges us to reflect on the nature of the self in all its many complexities.
That is where any further details about the way this unfolds should end, as there is much to discover on the vast journey even as the characters never leave the island. Instead, the experience is defined by a look into the eternal more than it is the external. Yes, there are great performances across the board from a cast that expertly captures the shifting personas that take over their bodies. This is more than deserving of praise, as it is no easy feat to do this without overplaying this element while still convincing us fully of the swaps being made. People who we once saw as confident then become more shy and vice versa, expressing how the mind can influence how it is that we interact with the world. However, it is also only the beginning of what makes this experience such a rich one. One’s physiology is given just as much emphasis as we see how the physical maladies that weigh on one character stay with their body just as the addiction that troubled another seems to travel with them. Characters will remark on how weird this is, but this potential to lead a new life carries with it hope. Even if it’s just for a little bit,the more superficial elements that other films play around are soon left behind for far deeper questions about what makes us who we are and can be.
In this regard, the film has all the boldness of a work by the greatDavid Cronenbergeven as it is a bit more grounded than that. It is important to note that such a comparison, while a testament to the strengths of the film, is also reductive as it is only one small fraction of whatSkin Deephas in store.The questions being raised are its own as it quickly moves beyond the novelty of observing the characters post-swap to more melancholic beats. It is in this where Emde draws us into the inner tumult facing Leyla as she observes Tristan going off to swap from afar. Though she is not always herself, with the film taking on a more transitory state in the hands of cinematographerAhmed El Nagarand composerRichard Ruzicka, we never forget the look that shows how all is not well in paradise. There were allusions to her well-being here and there, though it is in her eyes that we see the pain she is carrying with her. While we see the wounds she carries with her on her arms, it is when we hear the despair creep into her voice that we truly understand the devastation that is underneath it all.
‘Skin Deep’ Is Sci-Fi That Gets to the Very Soul
When presented with the chance to leave this behind, how could you not consider taking it? Would it not be worth it even if she was no longer exactly the same person that Tristan fell in love with? If he truly loved her, would it matter the body that she had? Could they build a life together in the outside world as their new selves? Most importantly, who should decide this?Skin Deepis never showy about exploring these questions, even making room for some more playful yet still dark humor where a character beats themselves up to stop another from messing with them, but that only makes them cut that much deeper. There is much that is eventually left unresolved, as many of these questions are left lingering, though that is what life is. Even when given the ability to change everything, we’ll always have to come back to our uncertain selves.Skin Deepis the type of quietly ambitious film that never forgets about the personal while immersing us in vast ideas about the underpinnings of identity itself. It is a poetic and profound gem of an experience you wouldn’t dare swap for anything else.
Skin Deep is a stunning sci-fi debut from Alex Schaad that makes the most of its body-swap premise to ask fundamental questions about who we are and can be.
Skin Deepis now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.
