The Man Who Sold His Skin Movie Review: A poster of the film (courtesy themanwhosoldhisskin_themovie)
Cast: Yahya Mahayni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw, Monica Bellucci, Saad Lostan, Darina Al Joundi
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Tunisian writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania's
The Man Who Sold His Skin is easily the most intriguing of the films vying for the Best International Feature Film Oscar at the 93rd Academy Awards. Her choice of story and treatment sets this contender apart from the 14 other titles on the shortlist. The film is also on the threshold of history.
Ben Hania is an African Arab Muslim woman filmmaker, as removed from the profile of directors (mostly European) who have won or been nominated in this category all these years. Films from Maghreb - as many as five from Algeria (two of them helmed by non-Arab directors, Costa-Gavras of Z and Ettore Scola of Le Bal) and one from Mauritania (Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu) - as well as two each from Lebanon and Palestine and one from Jordan have in the past earned Oscar nods without ever going on to bag the statuette. Also, no Arab female filmmaker has ever been nominated for an Oscar.