Alien skin
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Alien skin |
| Country of production | Germany , Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2005 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Angelina Maccarone |
| script | Angelina Maccarone, Judith Kaufmann |
| music |
Hartmut Ewert , Jacob Hansonis |
| camera | Judith Kaufmann |
| cut | Bettina Boehler |
| occupation | |
| |
Unveiled Skin is a German film that was directed in 2005 by the film director Angelina Maccarone . The English title of the film is Unveiled .
action
Fariba Tabrizi, an interpreter who lives in Tehran , Iran , faces the death penalty in her home country for her homosexual acts . During her flight to Germany , she was arrested at Stuttgart Airport during passport control. At a hearing, she does not dare to state the real reason for her asylum application being homosexual in Iran . After some hesitation, she gives political reasons instead. After this turns out to be a lie, her attempts to clarify the situation are no longer believed and her asylum application is rejected.
Another Iranian refugee, Siamak Mustafa, committed suicide in desperation in the asylum seekers' hostel at the airport. Fariba then assumes his identity (also externally) and receives his identity papers from the German authorities, which grant a limited residence permit in Germany.
Fariba has only known Germany from her work as a translator. As an asylum seeker, she is brought to Sielmingen in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg by the German authorities under her false identity as Siamak Mustafa . The contrast between this rural place and the Iranian capital Tehran could not be greater for Fariba.
As an asylum seeker, she is not allowed to leave her district. Fariba / Siamak therefore tries to get forged papers in order to be able to assume an identity as a woman again, for which she needs larger financial resources. With the help of Gasmut, who lives in the asylum seekers' dormitory, she has the opportunity to work black in a nearby sauerkraut factory. There she meets her colleague Anne, who lives without a husband but with her son in the rural Swabian area.
Anne feels drawn to the reserved, quiet foreigner Siamak, begins a friendship with him and is ready for more. However, Anne's behavior generates rejection and even jealousy among her German work colleagues.
Fariba / Siamak learns from the German authorities that there is no longer any danger for him in Iran and that he must therefore leave Germany within 14 days. In her need, Fariba turns to Anne and reveals her identity as a woman and the real reasons for her persecution. Anne and Fariba jointly steal a luxury car in order to use the proceeds to pay for Fariba's false identity papers. Anne now transfers her strong affection for the male Siamak to the female Fariba.
While Fariba is now sitting at the table in Anne's apartment in women's clothes, Anne's male work colleagues unexpectedly return from camping with their son. Faribas / Siamak's secret is discovered and both women are threatened by the angry men. Anne's little son calls the police, who discovers the forged identity documents and takes Fariba again into custody.
With her new female identity, Fariba is deported to Iran by plane. She destroys her identity papers in the aircraft toilet and thus again assumes the identity of the male Siamak Mustafa.
background
The film deals with problems of homosexuality in Iran , immigration and the right to asylum. The idea for the film came from Angelina Maccarone and camerawoman Judith Kaufmann , both of whom had been working together on the script since 1998. The working title of Alien Skin was In Orbit . This term is officially used by the UN for asylum seekers who are in orbit around the earth because they are not allowed to stay anywhere legally.
Unfamiliar skin received funding from various German and Austrian film funding agencies, but it was unusually created without any involvement by German TV stations, which otherwise finance the majority of the film budget. In response to the refusal to participate in production, producer Ulrike Zimmermann (MMM-Filmproduktion, Hamburg) always got to hear that there was no German identification figure in the film.
Author and director Angelina Maccarone can also be heard musically in her film, during the credits. The song she wrote is Point of No Return and is sung by her in German during the credits (during the film, the song can also be heard in English in the background).
The main actress Jasmin Tabatabai, who was also responsible for the Persian translations together with Navid Akhavan, had to have almost all of her hair cut for the "male" role of Siamak . The corresponding scene can be seen in the accompanying documentation on the DVD.
The film was partly shot in an actual sauerkraut factory in Ehningen , Baden-Württemberg .
In the fall of 2007, a case made headlines in Berlin that is similar to the plot in Unfamiliar Skin . A young lesbian Iranian fled from her home country to Germany because she was facing the death penalty in Iran for her sexual orientation.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Sharia law has been in force in Iran and homosexual practices are therefore strictly forbidden and punishable.
criticism
“One of the dramaturgy of the television play obliges a story that overloads its highly topical refugee issue with a multitude of secondary threads. Atmospherically dense pictures and the convincing play of the main actress make up for some weaknesses. "
title
According to the director, the title of the film is ambiguous: "Unfamiliar skin" refers to the assumption of a foreign identity, but at the same time an erotic relationship with another person. The English title “Unveiled” symbolizes a headscarf that Fariba no longer has to wear in Germany, and the new kind of veiling that she takes on with her male identity.
Awards
- On July 4, 2005 the film celebrated its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival , where it was screened in competition. The director Angelina Maccarone was nominated for the Crystal Globe .
- In October 2005, the film was awarded the Hessian Film Prize in the Feature Film category.
- Also in October 2005, Unveiled Skin received the award for best feature film at the Seattle Film Festival and in November 2005 the Grand Jury Prize at the Image Nation Film Festival in Montreal, Canada
- In 2005 Bettina Böhler was nominated for the Film + Editing Prize .
- In 2006 Jasmin Tabatabai received a nomination for Best Actress at the German Film Awards .
- In April 2006, the film was awarded the Golden Aphrodite Award at the international film festival in Cyprus. Angelina Maccarone received the award for best director, Jasmin Tabatabai was honored as best actress in a motion picture.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Angelina Maccarone ( memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (in English) on afterallen.com from November 17, 2005
- ↑ News Archive on jasmin-tabatabai.com 24 January 2004 at
- ↑ Report on the German premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival on jasmin-tabatabai.com on September 27, 2005
- ↑ Forum Jasmin Tabatabai on bandits-movie.com on September 9, 2006
- ↑ News archive from August 22, 2006 on jasmin-tabatabai.com
- ↑ Pictures and report on the shooting ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on ehningen.de from October 2004
- ^ BZ-Berlin from September 4, 2007
- ↑ News Archive on jasmin-tabatabai.com of 4 September 2007
- ↑ Senate Department for Justice on berlin.de on September 27, 2007
- ↑ Overview: Homosexuals in Iran . In: IGFM.de . ( igfm.de [accessed on March 23, 2017]).
- ↑ Unfamiliar Skin in the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ Interview with "Unveiled" Director Angelina Maccaron - AfterEllen . In: AfterEllen . November 17, 2005 ( afterellen.com [accessed March 23, 2017]).
- ↑ List of winners at the Seattle Film Festival 2005 ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at seattlequeerfilm.com
- ↑ List of winners at the Image National Film Festival 2005 ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on image-nation.org
- ↑ List of winners at the Cyprus Film Festival 2006 ( Memento from April 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ News Archive on jasmin-tabatabai.com 17 May, 2006.
Web links
- Unveiled at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Unfamiliar skin at filmportal.de
- Unfamiliar skin at Ventura film distribution
- Film info / film reviews as well as a report from the German premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival on jasmin-tabatabai.com
- Film images , premiere images and video clips on jasmin-tabatabai.com