Skin (2018)

Movie
German title	skin
Original title	skin
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2018
length	118 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Guy Nattiv
script	Guy Nattiv
production	Dillon D. Jordan , ; Oren Moverman , ; Guy Nattiv, ; Jaime Ray Newman , ; Celine Rattray , ; Trudie Styler
music	Dan Romer
camera	Arnaud Potier
cut	Lee Percy , ; Michael Taylor
occupation
	Jamie Bell : Bryon Widner; Danielle Macdonald : Julie Price; Vera Farmiga : Share; Bill Camp : Fred "Hammer" Krager; Mike Colter : Daryle Jenkins; Zoe Colletti : Desiree; Colbi Gannett : Iggy; Kylie Rogers : Sierra; Louisa Krause : April; Daniel Henshall : Slayer; Mary Stuart Masterson : Agent Jackie Marks; Russell Posner : Gavin; Jenna Leigh Green : Rebeca Ramos; Sean Cullen : Dr. Bruce Shack; Jaime Ray Newman : Melissa Frye; Portia: Lonnie's mother;

Skin is a film drama by Guy Nattiv that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018 and was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2019 . The biography tells the story of Bryon Widner , a member of the right-wing extremist “Viking” movement , who managed to get out of the right-wing scene between 2006 and 2010.

action

Shaved bald and decorated from head to toe with the racist tattoos he earned through his hate crimes, Bryon Widner, one of the most wanted white Suprematists , leads a destructive life that seems to lead to a one-way street. When he meets three-time mother Julie, who has just turned her back on the right-wing scene, his sense of responsibility as the father of her three young daughters from previous relationships in Bryon arouses the desire to leave the right-wing movement behind. He seeks help from the human rights activist Daryle, but from now on has to live with death threats and harassment from his old gang. With the help of the FBI and the SPLC , he undergoes 25 painful operations to remove the tattoos covering his body, including loads of right-wing slogans and symbols conducive to the arrest and condemnation of his former gang.

Biographical

Bryon Widner was one of the FBI's most wanted white Suprematists. To leave the right-wing scene behind, he had to endure death threats and harassment from his old gang. With the help of the Afro-American activist Daryle Lamont Jenkins, he finally managed to leave the right-wing extremist scene and distance himself from his stepparents who were active in the “Viking” movement. After betraying his entourage to the FBI, Widner went into hiding, and in return for deciphering the tattoos that covered his body and painful surgeries that took months to remove, he was eventually able to avoid prison while members of his former gang were hiding Arrested and subsequently convicted by the FBI using the SPLC.

production

Staff, original and film construction

Director and screenwriter Guy Nattiv during the press conference at the Berlinale in February 2019

Israeli director Guy Nattiv , who also wrote the screenplay for Skin , was born in Tel Aviv in 1973, where he also attended the Camera Obscura School of Art, Film and Television Department. The film is based on Nattivs same name, 20-minute short film Skin , who was awarded an Oscar. Nattiv was inspired in his work by the television documentary Erasing Hate by Bill Brummell, which also dealt with Widner's exit. In the mail to Brummell, Nattiv mentioned his Jewish grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who had lived on without Grimm. Nattiv started developing Skin in 2011 and worked on the script for four and a half years under Widner's guidance: “I had no idea,” he says, “how right-wing extremists speak and act. Besides, I didn't know what to reveal about ... after the FBI took care of him. Although you can clearly feel how much Widner wants to change into a better person, it is difficult for him to suppress the anger in himself. Like a junkie who can always get up when he gets weak. ”In 2014 Nattiv moved to the USA.

The director starts the film with a protest by a neo-Nazi troop, which is contrasted with a counter-demonstration by Afro-American activists. This is led by Daryle Jenkins, who later helps Widner to escape the organization. "An impressive opening sequence that defines the brutally harsh and unadorned tone that runs through the entire film," said Christian Pogatetz from Uncut. Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival about Skin and the rise of right-wing extremism in the US, the African American political activist said : “The most important thing we learn from this film is how much humanity there is in all of us - no matter how vicious or how kind we are Christian Pogatetz finds the quote “I turn human garbage into human beings”, which Jenkins utters at the beginning of the film, quite appropriate, as it describes the way in which Nattiv manages to humanize his protagonist without to defend its past: "It is despite the terrifying severity that is roughly portrayed here, namely an ultimately positive film that believes that people have the ability to mature and can fundamentally change for the better if the will to do so ready."

Cast and filming

Leading actor Jamie Bell plays Bryon Widner in the film

Jamie Bell plays the scene dropout Bryon Widner. The British actor had met several times in preparation for his role with him, at the time in a kind of witness protection program: “We sat for hours in his garage and talked about his life. His difficult childhood, his parents who abused him, about his classmates who bullied him. He was the only white person in the class. ”A few stories would have helped him, a few not, Bell said, but it was important to him that they are always honest with one another and that the fronts were clarified from the start. Vera Farmiga plays Widner's "Mom" Shareen, the matriarch of the racist skinhead family. Danielle Macdonald plays single mom Julie Price. Their eldest daughter Desiree is played by Zoe Colletti , middle daughter Sierra by Kylie Rogers , and youngest daughter Iggy by Colbi Gannett . The good-natured Rottweiler of the Widner-Price family bears the name "Boss".

Bell's makeup artist Stevie Bettles made a type of prosthesis for each tattoo that made it easier to apply. These were modeled on the tattoos of the real Bryon and adapted to Bell's face proportions.

Filming took place in Kingston, New York.

Dubbing and film music

The German dubbing was based on a dialogue book and dialogue direction by Benjamin Teichmann on behalf of Think Global Media GmbH, Berlin. Nicolás Artajo lends his voice to Bryon Widner in the German version.

The film music was composed by Dan Romer . The soundtrack, which comprises a total of ten pieces of music, was released for download on September 20, 2019 by Lakeshore Records.

publication

The film premiered on September 8, 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival . From February 11, 2019, it was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section. From May 1, 2019, it was featured in the Spotlight Narrative section of the Tribeca Film Festival . A screening at the Montclair Film Festival took place on May 4, 2019, before it hit US cinemas on July 26, 2019. In June 2019 it was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival . In July 2019 the film was shown at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival . It was released in German-speaking cinemas on July 25, 2019 and in German cinemas on October 3, 2019. In September 2019 the film was shown in the main competition at the American Film Festival in Deauville .

reception

Age rating

In Germany, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 16. The statement of reasons for the release states that the film contains some intense scenes of violence , whereby the acts are always portrayed in a negative and deterrent manner. In addition, they are coherently embedded in the overall dramaturgy: "The focus is on the positive change of the main character and the difficult exit from the neo-Nazi scene ."

Reviews and use in school lessons

Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter thinks the urge to make the story more dramatic and commercial runs the risk of making it less believable. Paradoxically, this gutted Widner's original story about a man who wants to reinvent himself morally and physically.

Michael Meyns from the Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater believes that a little more substance would have done Guy Nattiv's drama to understand why young people can drift into such a scene. What helps to overlook some script weaknesses is Jamie Bell's performance, which sometimes plays itself in an impressive intoxication of doubts and self-hatred, and that even under the hard shell there is always a delicate, vulnerable being, makes Bryon's disunity palpable and believable.

Danielle Macdonald plays Widner's friend Julie Price in the film

Christian Pogatetz from the online film magazine Uncut writes in his review that Guy Nattiv succeeded in creating an emotionally disturbing drama with brilliant acting, which deals with his complex topic in a variety of ways without ever attempting to justify the earlier actions of his protagonist. In contrast to American History X, which in his opinion is overrated, Nattiv does not turn the difficult topic into a fairytale melodrama, but rather uses a realistic approach that largely dispenses with emotionally manipulative film music. The difficult task of humanizing a character like Bryon without relativizing the difficult topic is on the shoulders of main actor Jamie Bell, which he masters with flying colors, says Pogatetz: "His transformation from a skinhead who blindly follows the ideals of his family, up to a man who is aware of his former mistakes and is ashamed of them, Bell plays absolutely credible. ” Danielle Macdonald also plays big and above all manages to score with a natural charm.

Felix Denk from the youth magazine fluter thinks the film “presses a little too much on the tube” and, especially towards the end, he puts too much emphasis on action. For example, a key scene, when Bryon is attacked by his Nazi friends while on the run and his tormentors hang his beloved Rottweiler "Boss", is staged as an emotional climax with a lot of violin music, while the neo-Nazi troupe shortly before four Muslim men without residence permits burns in a junkyard that would go down in a storm of action of quick cuts and flames.

The online portal kinofenster.de recommends Skin for the subjects of social studies / community studies , politics, ethics and English and offers materials for the film for the classroom. Christian Horn writes there that the intense presence of the main actor Jamie Bell gives the already thematically relevant and grippingly staged thriller drama even more substance. Before discussing the dropout film in social studies class, the protagonist should be characterized. An analysis could show how radical groups and sects lead people into immaturity with perfidious methods. Here it is worthwhile to invite experts from organizations that support right-wing extremists in leaving the scene to deepen the subject in the classroom.