Madagascar Skin

Water Bearer Films

Two men, drifters and outcasts, find solace in each other's company in this odd, evocative drama. John Hannah (Alias, The Mummy) is Harry, a lonely man who's never found acceptance in the gay community because of the big port wine stain on his face (it's vaguely shaped like Madagascar, hence the title.) After another night of rejection at the clubs, Harry drives to the seaside, literally, where he stares at the water while his car becomes encrusted with seaweed and barnacles. It looks like he's working up the courage to kill himself, but his plans are interrupted when he finds a man left for dead on the beach. Harry nurses the mysterious, nearly drowned Flint (Bernard Hill, The Lord of the Rings) back to health, and soon the two are squatting in an empty cottage and sharing an odd domesticity. The prickly Harry falls for the puckish Flint and tenderly cares for him, while the rough-edged Flint tries in his clumsy way to amuse the sullen Harry. Their friendship is conveyed through silence and rich imagery as much as narrative (the pace and visuals are reminiscent of Greenaway, and the dialogue of Pinter or Beckett) making for a film that can frustrate you with its obliqueness, then move you with its wonderfully cinematic evocations of Harry's yearning.