VERDICT: A young woman confronts her true self in the mirror in this beautifully shot and symbolic evocation of an individual’s transition from female to male.
There is something profound in the simplicity of Skin’s premise.
Filmmaker Leo Behrens, a cinematographer by trade, wanted to find a way to genuinely evoke the internal journey of his own gender transition. By literalising the metaphorical saying about feeling comfortable in one’s own skin, the film creates a strange and symbolic tableau that at once feels utterly unreal and deeply authentic. Winner of several awards including the gold medal at the 2023 Student Academy Awards, Skin now screens in the short film section at the Oldenburg Film Festival.
The film effectively reimagines the famous scene from The Matrix in which Neo touches the mirror and reality bends as he conceives of its constructed nature. Here, the mirror also bends and contorts as an indicator of a version of reality being challenged, but not be the person looking into it. Instead, Behrens’ film creates two worlds separated by this phantasmagorical pane of glass, one in which a young woman gazes at the mirror and one in which their true self, their male self, waits in a wintery chamber to be recognised, to be actualised.
Behrens’ background in cinematography means that it is hardly a surprise that Skin is gorgeous to look at. Here, the now familiar blue and orange lighting of modern cinema are emblematically split – between a grungy bedroom and a frosty prison, between the outer female self and male self within. Eschewing dialogue, the film represents the silent interior reckoning of its protagonist. However, what makes Skin so striking is the ease with which it carries such an emotional punch. Behrens is less interested in the anguish of the person who feel constricted by their body and instead explores the catharsis of self-acceptance. It’s beauty is not just in its visuals but the poignancy of the experience it gives us a glimpse into.
Director, screenplay, cinematography: Leo Behrens
Cast: Lio Mehiel
Producer: Ilayda Cetinkaya
Editing: Alejandra Armijo
Production design: Mojo Wen
Music: Mike Forst
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival
No dialogue
7 minutes
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