Skin

Jamie Bell stars in the biopic of Bryon Widner. Widner grew up in a highly racist environment, but as a young man he turned his back on the violence and the hatred that he was so immersed in. This was thanks to his meeting an African American activist, and not least thanks to Julie, a single mother of three who had also cut her ties with similar fascist groups.

Widner infamously spent hours and hours under the needle to cover himself in tattoos to illustrate his hateful ideologies, and later underwent just as much painful treatment to get rid of the same tattoos. He personifies the part of contemporary US society that is increasingly defined by hate speech and xenophobia. As such, Skin is one of the most important films in this year’s festival program.