-Written by Kyle Bain.
2024 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!
In a world where having sex means that you switch bodies with the one you’re with, a young girl decides to fight back–to challenge the norm. After a sexual encounter she is forced to ask herself what to do next. Will she conform to the social expectations? Will she be successful in her protest? Will she end up in her original skin, or will her new body become permanent?
Steeped in social symbolism and metaphor, original skin tells a sexual tale that seems to often elude the media and the mainstream, that seems far too difficult to express to today’s generation. To explain to the younger generation the importance of sexual relationships, the effect that those relationships can have on them over the long term, is almost impossible. However, original skin expresses to its viewers that you lose a piece of yourself when you give yourself to someone else–and Writer Eve Hedderwick Turner and Director Mdhamiri á Nkemi bring this sentiment to life with grace and aplomb.
It’s easy to feel that passion that was poured into original skin, and that adds a layer of emotion that keeps viewers engaged throughout.
The colors and other visuals blend together in the most intense scene of the film, creating something almost inconceivable–but beautifully original and enticing. As everything bleeds into one, as everything becomes one cohesive being, original skin expresses a sentiment that is often difficult to communicate. Again, there are lessons to be learned regarding sex and its implications–and this team does a spectacular job of developing something so unique, something nearly perfect.
With beautiful shots of light and dark, often combating one another, original skin (which is an obvious play on “original sin”) plays with the idea of right and wrong. Morality remains a prominent piece of original skin throughout, and it oozes meaning. Through impeccable cinematography, original skin depicts both the beauty and the pain that exists in the world today; and blended together in seamless fashion this film thrives from beginning to end. The visuals are captivating, every facet of them–and as viewers are drawn further and further into this spectacular film it becomes harder and harder to look away.
In a world full of reboots and sequels (and if you’re keeping score, this is probably the two hundredth time I’ve mentioned this–making me just as bad as Hollywood), original skin is brilliantly, well…original. It exists in a world that I’ve never before seen and it tells a familiar tale but in the most unique way that I’ve seen to date. The online synopsis reads “In an alternate reality…,” and I thought to myself “don’t all films exist in an alternate reality?” Well, I think mentioning this to potential viewers sets them up for unique expectations–allowing them to see that Original Sin extends far beyond what its contemporaries are often capable. This film exists in a world all its own–and I’m not sure that I could have been more impressed.
Directed by Mdhamiri á Nkemi.
Written by Eve Hedderwick Turner.
Starring Sorcha Groundsell, Olive Gray, Madeleine Worrall, Andrea Lowe, Fiona Forster, Nick Haverson, etc.
9/10 = DROP EVERYTHING AND WATCH IT NOW
