MADAGASCAR SKIN

Chris Newby's follow-up to “The Anchoress” is a boy-meets-boy love story with a gloriously happy ending. Harry (John Hannah) is a shy young gay man, an island unto himself, who symbolically has a birthmark the shape of Madagascar that covers half of his face. Disenchanted with the city club scene, he takes flight to the sea where he stumbles, literally, on Flint (Bernard Hill), a bit of a cheeky bruiser with a dodgy past. The two men seem the most unlikely companions, but set up home together in a derelict cottage. Newby's visually imaginative and impishly humored film turns the odd couple comedy on its head, as Harry begins to fancy his robustly heterosexual housemate and starts to spin new fantasies around him. Equally, Flint seems to be engaged in his own dream world. However, it soon becomes clear that the solipsistic duo might well be living on the same island as the tensions between them come to an exuberant head. With wonderful performances from Hannah and Hill – who seem to really delight in their roles – MADAGASCAR SKIN is the wittiest of love poems that will leave the audience drunk on the happiness of its two heroes. – Lizzie Francke, London Film Festival