Film In ‘Skin,’ an Israeli Director Portrays a Neo-Nazi’s Evolution Jamie Bell, who made his name in 2000 as a young dancer in ‘Billy Elliot,’ plays a neo-Nazi who changes his ways in Israeli director Guy Nattiv’s new movie, ‘Skin’ By Tobias Grey
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-skin-an-israeli-director-portrays-a-neo-nazis-evolution-11563802201?mod=hp_lead_pos10
The Israeli director Guy Nattiv decided to make a movie about a reformed neo-Nazi only after receiving the blessing of his grandfather who survived the Holocaust.
“Skin,” which opens in the U.S. on July 26, is Mr. Nattiv’s first American feature film. Mr. Nattiv said he dedicated it to Ruben Monowitz, who died two years ago at age 96, “because he taught us as grandkids how to accept and forgive.”
Mr. Nattiv wrote the screenplay for “Skin” after persuading Bryon Widner, a former skinhead who co-founded a violent white-power group in Indiana in 2003, to sign over the rights to his life story.
“I’ve got to give Bryon a lot of credit,” said Mr. Nattiv, who is 46. “He gave me full authority to tell his story the way I wanted to.”
“Skin,” which won the international critics prize at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival, draws its title from the hate-filled tattoos that Mr. Widner had removed from his face and body after dropping his racist beliefs and turning state’s evidence.
The film stars British actor Jamie Bell as Mr. Widner and Australian actress Danielle Macdonald as Mr. Widner’s wife, Julie. Mr. Nattiv’s script also focuses on the African-American antiracist activist Daryle Lamont Jenkins (played by Mike Colter) who helped get Mr. Widner into an FBI witness-protection program.
The film explores how easily teenagers with no family ties and limited means can be scooped up and indoctrinated by white-power groups. It also shows how dangerous it can be for them to try to leave the organizations.
Mr. Nattiv, who had already written and directed three movies in Israel, said he struggled to drum up interest for the script in 2016, when he began shopping it around Hollywood. “I did research in Ohio, Indiana and the Rust Belt, and I saw racism and I saw gangs,” Mr. Nattiv said. “However, the reaction to my script was: ‘We like it but there are no real neo-Nazis in America.’ ”
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