The Next Skin

A strange tale of the prodigal son : Gabriel (Alex Monner) returns to his home to find his mother (Emma Suarez) a widow and an uncle (the always reliable Sergi Lopès) ,who becomes jealous because he considers Gabriel ,the son, a rival .Which is not entirely false,because the mother/son relationship is oedipian ,and thus may explain the short homosexual scene with Joan,a pal who knows (too) many things about the teenager's past .

In fact , the screenwriters allows some doubt to remain about the so called son's identity ("she would have welcomed a daughter!" uncle (mom's lover) claims ); and if the boy seems to remember his childhood's friend , there's a (black) gap in his memory,as far as his late father is concerned ; the screenplay is sometimes not firm enough , in this story with echoes of Tennessee Williams ;also handicapped by very dark scenes ,the cinematography sometimes leaving something to be desired .

In spite of these reservations , " la propera pell" can be recommended ; the Gabriel/youth worker is more complex than it appears at first sight : the man tells his protégé that he ,too, was a teenager with a past he wants to forget (this is a cliché, but it avoids pathos and sentimentality). The snow-covered mountains are shrouded in a shady atmosphere and an impending threat hangs on the hero ;the mother ,a woman from the south ,longs for a sunny place (a metaphor). Bruno Todeschini 's lines are generally in French ,but 90% the lines are in Catalan.