An audacious but not always palatable mix of drama, tragedy, romance, satire and dark humor.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Though the final product isn’t quite a home run, it is nonetheless a very intriguing work that again suggests Ben Hania is a talent to watch.
The more bizarre The Man Who Sold His Skin becomes, the less original it gets.
Art, commerce, and immigration are inextricably bound in Kaouther Ben Hania’s playful and gently moving, if uneven, film.
Austin Chronicle by Jenny Nulf
Tunisia’s first Oscar-nominated film, The Man Who Sold His Skin, is an emulsion of ideas, each as ambitiously thought-provoking as the next.
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
At times, The Man Who Sold His Skin plays like a cultural parody, but its aim is dead serious, and more sobering. The pathos and tragedy of the global refugee crisis is its target, not the pretensions of the international art market, and it, from time to time, delivers a sting.
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
The lustrously shot movie breaks Sam out of the gallery grind through Hollywood-grade somersaults in storytelling (one of them so breezily violent as to feel a little tasteless)
When it’s all over, the viewer gets to wrestle with everything everyone here does — the plight of Syria, the nature of art, “exploitation” and the nature of “freedom.” Not bad for the first Tunisian film much of the world will have ever had the chance to see.
It’s the central performance by feature first-timer Mahayni that best demonstrates the picture’s overall charms.
RogerEbert.com by Tomris Laffly
While it hardly breaks new ground, The Man Who Sold His Skin still manages to be a breezy watch, with an assured filmmaker gently steering it through a rough-around-the-edges tale.