Why the film “Skin” won’t be released in cinemas

Despicable but touching, violent but sensitive, Bryon Widner is the most famous skin-head in the USA, and Skin is a brilliant adaptation of his story. Born into a family of holocaust survivors, its director, Guy Nattiv, drew inspiration from Bill Brummel’s documentary Erasing Hate, released in 2011. In his full-length film, Israeli Nattiv blurs lines by telling the story of a quest for redemption and injecting a dose of romance. Having won the Oscar for best short film in 2019, Skin was shown for the first time in its full-length version at Deauville. Just like American History X did 20 years ago, the film tells the story of a white supremacist tormented by his states of mind.

Against all odds, the work won’t be shown in cinemas but will be released exclusively on Blu-Ray, DVD and VOD. The film’s distributors, The Jokers – who also distributed Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho, winner of the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival, and a box office hit – can’t take the financial risk of putting Skin in cinemas. The Jokers expressed their disappointment in a long statement: “The film deserves to be seen on the big screen, but you know that the market is extremely complicated. Releasing such a film in cinemas today and giving it the means to reach a wide audience means taking huge financial risks […] Whether it’s with films like Green Room, Brimstone, Message from the King or Galveston, we have always encountered impassable barriers for a distributor our size […] Believe us, it isn’t nice having to contact the talented Guy Nattiv and explain to him that his film has more chance of being seen with a good video release rather than a difficult film release. Parasite was a miracle. We hope that you understand and don’t hold it against us.”

So, Skin will be released on December 3rd on Blu-Ray, DVD et VOD, with the eponymous 2018 Oscar-winning short version included.