Eduardo Casanova evokes the “bastard” that lies within us

Samantha, Laura, Atzlar, Anna, Ernesto, Gale, Vanessa and Christian are tortured. The reason: superhuman physical standards different from what is considered socially “beautiful.” Samantha lives with her brother, the anus replaced her mouth and vice versa. Laura, a prostitute, has no eyes. Atzlar, a depressed elderly woman, is overweight. Anna, a young woman, has a disfigured face. Ernesto, Anna’s unfaithful lover. Gail, Anna loves him and betrays her boyfriend with him, her face and body are burned. Vanessa, who suffers from a cartilage deficiency, dreams of becoming a mother. Christian hates his feet, he wants to amputate them.

Some distortions are exaggerated and unrealistic, others are seen in normal life. “Skins”, the first feature film by Spanish director Eduardo Casanova, narrates the experiences of people whose outward appearance is the most important obstacle in life. Their lives intersect under similar situations. Consequently, stories that are combined with individuality and strangeness at the same time, generate problems that we have not encountered and barriers that we did not know. It is one of the most elusive, unknown and ambiguous experiences that Spanish cinema has had. Casanova, with his experience as a director, reminds us of the films of Todd Souldes and John Water, but takes us back to the first films of David Lynch (Eraserhead – 1977) with a touch of Italian pink giallo cinema.

The movie can make us feel a bit uncomfortable, but we will not turn off the screen, but we will remain in our places despite the feelings of annoyance, poking out to satisfy our curiosity, we enjoy a bit of our intrusion in these strange cases, in the faces that they hide behind masks and distortions. Many films talked about different people, about racism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination on social and religious grounds … “Skins” talked about the discrimination of those who suffer from congenital deformities or physical defects or relatively inferior degrees of beauty, to through a melodramatic plot with little black comedy.
Rolling over in an uncomfortable seat, that’s the point. Forcing ourselves to drop something in our life, be afraid of our faces and hands, not our backs, look back in shame, feel an unfair aversion to the strange and be reprimanded by our conscience because we reject the difference. Certainly, we will feel a lot of guilt, for our feelings, for our estrangement and for the smile on our faces. This is a cinema that creates spaces of contradictory feelings, pity, sadness and sympathy, and then laughter in situations where it is difficult to laugh except in front of a screen. It is a challenge for the director, more than for his viewers, how to force ourselves to put aside moral concepts and values. It is the pleasure that goes beyond mental logic and traditional sympathy, towards automatic, often shameful feelings, that gives us the opportunity to feed the “scandal” inherent in each of us.

* Skins on Netflix

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