Even I was dumbstruck by the outrageous, hilarious and transgressive Pieles (Skins), a 2017 Spanish film directed by Eduardo Casanova, now streaming on Netflix.
It’s a wildly stylized collection of interconnecting tales about individuals unwholesomely, and sexually, attracted to people with deformities. The production design is a riot of pinks and lavenders that makes you feel like you are drowning in cotton candy. But it is so darkly funny and surprisingly moving in such a sick way I just loved it.
I don’t want to give too much away because of the demented joy of just letting the film reveal itself in ways that have you laughing and gasping in the same breath.
Produced by Alex de la Iglesias (30 Coins), you can spot a lot of the regular actors he uses and they are all spectacular. There’s the expectant father Simon (Antonio Duran), obsessed with an eyeless prostitute named Laura- who grows into an Iglesia favorite, the wickedly funny Macarena Gomez).
There is the unfortunate Samantha (Ana Polvorosa) with an inverted digestive track, leaving her with an anus for a mouth.
There’s sweet, unhappy Christian (Eloi Costa), a boy who self-harms because he hates his legs and dreams of becoming a mermaid.
There’s Ana (Candela Pena) a woman with tumors on her face who is trying to let down a suitor but lusts over Guille (Jon Kortajarena), a disfigured burn victim. The joke is that the actor playing this role in reality is a drop-dead handsome male model.
Other wonderful actors include Itziar Castro as a lovesick client of Laura; Ana Maria Ayala as a dwarf forced to dress in a cumbersome pink costume on a kiddie show; and Carmen Machi who plays the monster mother of Christian and is just hilarious.
Prepare to be stunned and delighted by this deranged treat. One can only wait with nervous anticipation for the talented director Eduardo Casanova’s next outrage.
I have to see this twisted little jewel.
I’ll bet it’s even better than the video of the
Singing Anus you played for me years ago.