If you’re any type of arts nerd, The Man Who Sold His Skin is delightful. The film is directed by Kaouther Ben Hania and is competing for Best International Feature film at the 93rd Academy Awards, a first for Tunisia. The Man Who Sold His Skin is a fictional story inspired by a real event: a man, Tim Steiner, sold his back to a tattoo artist, Wim Delvoye (who makes an appearance in the movie). Steiner now travels around the world, exhibiting his back in museums.

Ben Hania takes this idea and complicates it: the man who sells his skin, Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni), is a Syrian refugee and the tattoo on his back is a Schengen visa. The artist, Jeffrey Godefroy (Koen de Bouw) claims that, by turning Sam into a commodity, he has enabled him to travel freely through the world - a freedom his Syrian passport did not provide. Unsurprisingly, controversy ensues. 

The film is a satire but touches on serious issues. The war is the reason Sam leaves Syria and his status as a Syrian refugee - though not necessarily a defining feature for Sam himself - is the first and sometimes the only thing others seem to see in him. The visa literally being tattooed on his back makes that fact hard to miss. 

Class is also a big factor. Abeer (Dea Liane), Sam’s girlfriend, is Syrian as well but her family’s wealth gives her opportunities that Sam is not afforded. Closely tied to class is language: The Man Who Sold His Skin is in Arabic, English, and French and most of the characters seem to speak at least two languages. Who speaks which language to whom and in what context is something to keep an eye out for. 

From symbolism and color schemes to politics and ethics, The Man Who Sold His Skin gives you plenty to talk about in Arabic, English, or even French. And, most importantly for Fi Kalam, the movie has plenty of great Arabic vocabulary, some of which we have assembled into a list below.

The movie is in theaters around the globe this spring (2021) and available to stream on Amazon.

Vocabulary / مفردات

الرجل الذي باع ظهره
The man who sold his back
Note: the English and French movie titles are not literal translations, replacing the word “back” with “skin”

6:04
معك حق
You’re right

7:37
نحن بوقت الثورة
We’re in a time of revolution

7:39
حورية
Freedom

10:43
لازم أترك البلد
I need to leave the country

13:34
حدود
Border

14:20
ماشي الدنيي
Life goes on
Literal translation: the world is walking

22:35
بترجم (ترجم)
I translate

46:22
الزعج
The bother, inconvenience, or interruption

46:35
مستغل/ة (استغل)
Exploited (to exploit)

47:40
لاجئ / اللاجئين
Refugee/s

48:45
هدول غيرانين (غيور)
They’re jealous

49:02
انت فخور/ة فيي
You’re proud of me

42:12
فيني أعانقك؟
Can I hug/embrace you?

54:56
متحف
Museum

55:57
خرا عليك
Fuck you
Literal translation: shit on you

58:27
جحش
Idiot

1:29:33
أنفصلت عن (أنفصل)
I broke up with or I separated from

1:29:47
ضيعنا كتير وقت (ضيع)
We lost or we wasted a lot of time