Nominated for Best International Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards, it's the official submission from Tunisia. Strangely though, this film isn't about or even set in Tunisia. Instead, it's about Syria or specifically a Syrian refugee. Syria is an Arab country with a predominant Muslim population. Tunisia isn't much different, except it isn't currently in a civil war, a civil war that has created tons of refugees who have fled to various other countries in the Middle East and Europe. Writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania is herself Tunisian and probably sympathizes for the Syrian refugees, so she decided to center her story on one. What she's doing ostensibly is adapting a true-life tale that occurred in 2006 where a Belgian artist put a tattoo on the back of a Swiss man who owned a tattoo parlor and then had him sit in an art gallery, making the Swiss man himself an exhibit in a combination of body art and performance art.
The Belgian artist put a complicated tattoo on the Swiss man's entire back. It took the artist 40 hours to finish the tattoo. The deal was that when the Swiss man died, the skin on his back would be framed and hung on a wall. In the meantime, the Swiss man had to sit topless in a gallery three times a year. The Swiss man ended up sitting five hours a day, six days a week. The Belgian artist was trying to put attention and respect to tattoos as an art and experiment with the idea of a living canvas. The Swiss man got various reactions from people who saw him in the gallery. Some even saw it as a human rights violation, akin to slavery or prostitution. Hania picks up on that idea somewhat.
Yahya Mahayni stars as Sam Ali, a Syrian refugee who escapes his home country and stays in Lebanon. He's an undocumented immigrant who has a roommate or fellow immigrant who seems just as poor and disenfranchised or struggling. In order to survive, Sam and his friend go to art galleries and steal food. When an artist catches him, that Belgian artist asks Sam if he would agree to sell the space on his back for a tattoo that he would then have to sit and display in a museum or some exhibition space. The only reason that Sam agrees is because the artist is wealthy, successful and has resources that can get Sam a visa and money to live very comfortably.
Before Sam left Syria, he was in love with a woman named Abeer Al-Khateeb, played by Dea Liane. Sam was arrested and while he was locked up, Abeer was basically pushed to marry another man and then move to Belgium. Sam, therefore, wants to go to Belgium in order to find her, see her and try to get back together with her. Given his situation, selling his back or in a sense selling himself seems like the only option.
Last year, two films were released that were about Syrian refugees having to sell themselves after having fled to European countries. One was set in Lithuania, Romas Zabarauskas'
The Lawyer (2020). The other was set in Germany, Kai Kreuser's
Label Me (2020). Both, however, are gay films where the Syrian in question has sex with European men. There was even a film posted on YouTube last year, Saleem Haddad's
Marco (2019) that was also about a Syrian refugee who was a sex worker, basically selling his body in order to survive. These films represent a pattern or trend that is most likely based in truth, a truth that Hania's film recognizes because there is a line where Sam's friend implies that his deal with the Belgian artist will be homosexual in nature.
Unfortunately, Hania never is able to convey or truly convince me of the idea that what Sam is doing is akin to prostitution or even human trafficking, which is an argument that is thrown out later in the film. What Sam is doing in this film feels more like modeling. What Sam does here comes across not unlike what plenty of young men have done walking the runway for Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch. By the end, Sam is meant to feel trapped or enslaved, which is another argument that's not fully convincing here, but we certainly get that he's homesick.
Sam's feelings seem less about the art on his back but more about him about being a refugee. I suppose doing the art exhibits where he has to sit shirtless with his back to everyone further makes him feel isolated and homesick. The resolution though felt ridiculous and at the same time anti-climactic. Throughout the entire film, he's been missing one woman whom he loves. Apparently, the ending satisfies his longing, but there's a twist that I didn't understand as to why it needed to happen.
With recent films like Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) and The Square (2017), this film is a bit of a critique on the art world and the elites who populate it. Yet, I don't know why Hania would make the art world her target here. The Belgian artist who did this tattoo on the Swiss man in real life wasn't actually exploiting anyone. He wasn't taking advantage of an oppressed or disadvantaged minority. I suppose Hania makes the case here because she's ultimately making the greater point that the only way anyone would care about a Syrian refugee is if he's made into a commodity as Sam becomes. I think Hania loses the tone of her film, which starts out rather straightforward and tries to veer into satire and a bit of dark comedy by the end, which I feel just didn't jive or was cohesive.
Not Rated but for mature audiences.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 44 mins.
Available on Hulu.
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