‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ to Represent Tunisia in International Oscar Race (EXCLUSIVE)

Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” will represent Tunisia in the Oscar race for best international feature film.

The movie world premiered at Venice where it won the best actor award for Yahya Mahayni. The film went on to have its Middle East premiere at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, where it scooped the best Arab film nod.

Represented in international markets by Paris-based Bac Films International, the film stars Mahayni as a Syrian man who accepts to have a large Schengen visa, the document he desperately needs to enter Europe, tattooed on his back by a famous artist, thus becoming a human artwork to be exhibited in a Brussels museum.

“The Man Who Sold His Skin,” which shot in English, Arabic and French, also stars Monica Bellucci. The film is Ben Hania’s follow up to “Beauty and the Dogs,” a drama about the rape of a young Tunisian woman by policemen, which world premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard in 2017.

Bac Films has so far sold “The Man Who Sold His Skin” to Switzerland (Trigon Film), Portugal (Paris Audiovisuals), Denmark and Norway (Another World Entertainment), Taiwan (Creative Century) and Brazil (Providence Filmes), Benelux (Cinéart), Turkey (Bir Films), Taiwan (Creative Century) and Russia (Ten Letters).

“The Man Who Sold His Skin” was produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Paris-based Tanit Films and Habib Attia at Tunis-based Cinétéléfilms, in association with Guillaume Rambourg, Lassaad and Rafik Kilani, with the support of co-producers Twenty Twenty Vision, Kwassa Films, Laika Film & Television, Metafora Media Production, Sunnyland Film (ART Group), Film I Vast, Voo & Be Tv and Istiqlal films.

The film’s distributors in the countries of productions are Eksystent Distribution in Germany, FilmLaden in Austria, Folkets Bio in Sweden, Hakka Distribution in Tunisia and Art in the Middle East.