Second Skin

Marria Lapidus’ Second Skin is not an easy watch.

The film consists primarily of the director and her two collaborators, Lera Vetkhova and Margo Shkalina, in a white box studio going through the process of attempting to accurately re-enact sexual assault stories. Some of the stories have been shared online before, some have been recalled to the filmmakers directly, in all cases the people assaulted have remained anonymous, with the filmmakers taking on the burden of re-telling and, in the process, reckoning with, their stories. It is a singular, brave, uncomfortable, and necessary film that was rightly awarded one of the three prizes in this year’s Tiger Shorts Competition at Rotterdam.

The film is composed of a few different elements, though the re-enactments have primacy. Alongside them are tableaux of women’s clothes hung in various locations, intended to represent – and sometimes being literal examples of – places in which rapes have occurred.  Alongside these are on screen messages, taken from a group WhatsApp group, in which many of the women whose stories are featured talk about the psychological impact both of the attacks and the process of sharing their stories and being heard. Through all of this, Lapidus, Vetkhova, and Shkalina reflect on what it means to tell these stories, to put themselves in the places of these women, and what it must have been like to experience these assaults.

The result is a film that blends performance art with landscape art, blends the re-enactment with the reflexive, blends the searing personal with the vitally political. It is at once a simple idea and yet one that brims with complex elements and considerations. However, all of that pales into insignificance against the weight of its empathetic intent. As the film progresses, some of the filmmakers reveal their own stories of abuse and a startling act of violence that they suffered collectively while making the film. The cumulative effect of these stories is overwhelming and painful. The impact that this act of bearing witness, this act of supreme compassion, can and has had for the women represented and countless multitudes beyond is awe-inspiring.

Director, screenplay, producing, editing: Mariia Lapidus
Cast: Lera Vetkhova, Margo Shkalina, Mariia Lapidus
Cinematography: Lera Vetkhova
Production design: Margo Shkalina
Sound: Maria Alejandra Rojas, Arturo Salazar
Production companies: Sonnet (USA)
Venue: International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (Tiger Short Competition)
In Russian
62 minutes