With “Aus meine Haut” Alexander Schaad is bringing a film to the cinema that is unusual by German standards. Eso-sci-fi mystery meets romantic drama as people swap bodies to deal with relationship issues and rethink their lives.
“Freaky Friday”, “17 again”, “Solo for two”, “Big”, “Switch”, “Face/Off” – there are body switch comedies like sand by the sea, but Alexander Schaad switches bodies with his first feature film once different. Instead of relying on slapstick, he turns the subject into an esoteric science fiction mystery love drama that asks many big questions, but doesn’t know how to answer all of them. Together with his brother Dimitrij Schaad, who also plays one of the main roles in “Aus meine Haut”, the director and author has thought about the influence of the body of each individual on his life and his decisions.
Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristan (Jonas Dassler) have been invited to a remote island by Leyla’s old friend Stella. She lives there in the body of her father (Edgar Selge) and also offers other people to exchange their bodies – at least for a certain period of time – in order to gain new experiences and to change their view of their own (love) life.
Stella receives support from Roman (Thomas Wodianka), her father’s former boyfriend. Some people have gathered on the romantic island for the session, including the couple Fabienne (Maryam Zaree) and Mo (Dimitrij Schaad), who are assigned to Leyla and Tristan for the experiment. After the ceremony, Tristan finds himself in Mo’s body and Leyla in Fabienne’s and vice versa. But it won’t be the only exchange, and with all the positive insights that the whole thing brings, some problems quickly appear.
Who hasn’t thought about what it would be like to live the life of a beautiful model, a successful athlete or a celebrated Hollywood star? Switching bodies with anyone you like is certainly not the first thing that came to mind. What benefit would that bring? However, Out of My Skin is not about gaining special skills or wealth overnight, but about seeing yourself in a different light.
Tristan, for example, is more of a quiet, reserved type, while Mo is loud and chubby, an unpleasant loudmouth, as beech is. As these two bodies are now possessed by each other’s personalities, it also affects those around them in general and their friends in particular. It does have its funny moments. And Edgar Selge, who plays a woman in her mid-thirties in the body of a 70-year-old, also has something comedic about it.
But “Out of my skin” isn’t really about comedy. However, anyone who expects a horror film like “Midsommar” because of the mysterious atmosphere is also wrong. Rather, it’s a serious film whose comical moments seem almost alien and rather unwanted. It’s about the question of identity and how much of the personality is shaped by the natural body. Does it change the inside when the outside is suddenly different?
In any case, it is unusual to watch different actors and actresses embody the same characters over and over again. When men play women and women play men – gender fluid told in a completely new way. This is probably one of the reasons why “Out of My Skin” received the “Queer Lion” at the Venice Film Festival, one of the most important LGBTQIA film awards of all.
It’s about longings, desires and love itself. How important is the body in which the spirit of the other person is for the feelings? Finding a universal answer to this is difficult, and so the film only gives it specifically for its characters, albeit not for all of them in equal measure. So there is not much more left of Roman than the body that he makes available to Leyla. The viewer hardly learns anything from himself.
It is without question an exciting thought experiment that Alex and Dimitrij Schaad dare here and that is rare in German cinema. And even if the film doesn’t provide an answer to everything, it does pose questions that are great for discussion afterwards over a glass of wine. “How would your life be if you stuck in my body?”
“Out of My Skin” will be in cinemas on February 2nd.
