Horst_In_Translation Review of Unveiled

Unveiled (2005)

Starts solid, but the longer it goes the more it falls apart

[4/10 · 19 August 2019]

"Fremde Haut" or "Unveiled" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2005, so almost 15 years old now and it is probably the most known work by writer and director Angelina Maccarone. It seems she usually worked on mostly female-centered films, so it is not surprise what this one here is about at its core. Or maybe I should say who it is about. The main character Fariba is played by Jasmin Tabatabai and she has Iranian roots I think just like her character. In these approximately 100 minutes, we witness the challenging life of an Iranian woman who tries to adapt in Germany in terms of immigration, authorities, racial prejudice and eventually also love. She is persecuted in Iran because of her homosexual tendencies and rejection because of that is rarely an issue for her in Germany. The fact that she is from another corner of the world is the real problem here. She meets some who can deal with it nicely like the woman she falls for, but also Georg Friedrich's character for example. I find it pretty amazing that he is even in a film like this one here that seems to have at least an 80% foreign cast, even if not in the key roles. His role selection is always so impressive, like he's the defining supporting player really right now and has been for a while when it comes to German movies. Glad he won a German Film Award not too long ago. Here he is/was not nominated, but that doesn't mean he isn't good. He always is really. Instead Tabatabai was nominated and the film also got some other awards recognition, mostly for Maccarone. I personally think it was a 6 out of 10 perhaps until around the one-hour mark. But when the film focuses more on the new relationship between the two women, it forgets almost about everything else it did so fine until then and that really is a shame that they could not keep this convincing level until the end. I must say the movie, not even in the first half, never really touched me or made a truly lasting impact on mre, but still it would have been nice if the level could have been upheld because in terms of the immigration aspect the film works fine and I do not really say that too often about German movies because they almost always these days in the sense of political correctness put an insex finger into your face telling you this is the (only) way things should be, struggle with shades when it comes to character writing and despertale go for unneeded and most of the time unfunny comedy inclusions (Hartmanns). This one does not even try to do the latter and that's a good thing. Still, overall Tabatabai's strong lead performance alone is not enough to keep this from becoming a mediocre movie all in all, even if admittedly a lot here also has to do with her character's physical change (haircut etc.) and I am not sure that her being probably the most memorable component in here is really all about the acting. But it's not important either. It's usually a good sign if a film is banned in a country that it criticizes because there is some inconvenient truth to it and it is certainly true for this one, but that alone also does not make it a quality watch. Thumbs down from me overall. Not recommended. Watch Panahi instead.