There is a strong concept and a pure heart at the centre of Unskin, a fifteen-minute short film from British writer and director Elcid Asaei, but it is somewhat muted and a little lost in the execution. That, though, is more a result of ambition than anything else, and such a brave, out there attempt at a unified storytelling field is to be applauded.
Tying the film’s four acts together is Roger Piper, who attends a job interview and tells the film’s narrative to his interviewer. Assertively choreographed by Konstantina Skalionta, the piece uses dance and mime to show what it doesn’t tell, although it is sometimes a little heavy-handed in its caricatures of the urban tribes on offer here; this writer certainly could have done without the moustache worn by one of the woolly-hatted millennials.
The tone is unsettling, and deliberately so, as we watch an alien presence play witness and then influence the lives of a group of such archetypes, before returning to Roger, who gives his interviewer a choice we, sooner or later, will all be faced with.
This is not a short to watch without investing something of yourself, and your mileage may vary on the return on that investment. It is, however, an intriguing turn on an almost Biblical trope.
UNSKIN (SHORT FILM) / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ELCID ASAEI / STARRING: ROGER CARVALHO, STEPHEN T. BOX, JÁCINT DÁVID / RELEASE DATE: TBC
