Skin Deep
2026 · 2m
Directed by Christopher Mack
Genres: dark comedy, drama, romance
Tones: darkly comic, provocative, sensual
In the sex paradise of the octogenarians, where the old parade in short skirts and the young struggle to be seen, the film asks how Adeline will keep the love of her life.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Finally—a film that flips the entire romantic-lead formula on its head and asks something genuinely unsettling: what if desire and invisibility are the real enemies, not time? Most festivals would hedgehog this premise into safe sentimentality; Mack leans into the provocation instead.
The tonal balance here—managing sensuality, dark comedy, and real stakes in 120 seconds—shows disciplined editing and a clear lineage to recent European shorts that interrogate aging and desire through formal restraint; the economy of the frame does considerable philosophical work.
The film's entire power hinges on a single choice: letting the camera linger on Adeline's face in moments when she's not being looked at, creating a visual grammar where invisibility becomes the antagonist—it's a lean, surgical decision that transforms a two-minute piece into something that lands.