Aus meiner Haut (2022)

Leyla and Tristan seem to be a happy couple. On a beautiful summer’s day, they arrive on an island that can only be reached by ferry. Every summer, couples gather here in a kind of commune to exchange bodies with one another with the help of a shamanic ritual. They are welcomed by Stella, a school friend of Leyla’s who has the appearance of an older man but the mannerisms of a young woman. Her late father, who was a kind of guru to the group, used the ritual to sacrifice himself for his sick daughter, allowing her to continue living in his body. In the draw, Tristan and Leyla are paired with Mo and Fabienne, who is taking part for the second time. They are now supposed to spend two weeks in each other’s bodies. Leyla feels liberated and finally feels a desire to live again, while Tristan is quickly overwhelmed by the situation. After having sex with Fabienne, who is in Leyla’s body, he is horrified with himself and wants to end the experiment. Leyla is disappointed, because now she, too, has to return to her old body. Leyla, who has been struggling with depression for some time and felt suddenly better in the new body, agrees to another exchange when Roman, Stella’s father’s former partner, offers to let her have his body permanently. As in Fabienne’s body, Leyla feels visibly at ease in Roman’s body. Although Tristan initially struggles with the fact that his girlfriend is now in a man’s body, the couple manages to come to terms with the situation. For Roman, however, the body swap proves disastrous. His grief over Stella’s father’s death deepens while he is in Leyla’s body, and he falls back into excessive drinking, which he had only managed to overcome the previous year. On the morning of their departure, Leyla’s attempt to leave the island at dawn in Roman’s body fails. When she returns to the group, she, too, has to see how badly Roman is faring as a result of the body swap. So the couple consults Stella and arrives at a solution that satisfies everyone: after Roman and Leyla return to their own bodies, Leyla and Tristan make one final body swap. This is intended to allow Leyla to continue living free of depression in Tristan’s body, while Tristan can maintain his heterosexual relationship with the now-happy Leyla. To mark the end of their time together, the group sets fire to the tower on the grounds where the exchange rituals have been performed over the past few weeks. Leyla and Tristan’s role reversal now seems to have become irrevocable.