The film directed by Xavier Jeans was based on the novel Cold Skin by Spanish writer Albert Sanchez Pignol. The meaning of the film Cold Skin will be twisted on several storylines. The picture is based on the classics of the adventure genre. The meaning of the movie Cold Skin (2017)
The plot of the movie Cold Skin
A young meteorologist arrives on a small deserted island to replace his former weather watcher. But he finds only the lone lighthouse keeper Gruner, who is hiding some secret. Everything opens on the first night: unknown humanoid monsters appear on the island. A skirmish with them forces the newcomer to take refuge in the lighthouse. This is where all the secrets and mysteries of this place are revealed. It turns out that an aboriginal woman, who once got into the net, lives with him at the lighthouse. Gruner treats her like a stray dog and a concubine.
Gradually the plot moves from adventure to horror. Constant bloody clashes with the inhabitants make the young man think about their reasons. But Gruner inflames the situation more and more. The confrontation intensifies to the limit. The apogee of the picture is the last skirmish, when people used dynamite. All attackers died. Calm has come.
After some time, the young scientist accidentally meets on the coast with the surviving inhabitants. He tries to establish contact with them, but the same crazy guardian destroys the thin thread of the relationship that has just developed. Another massacre is coming. But the meteorologist manages to unravel Gruner’s riddle: this is his predecessor, the weather observer. A mad pseudo-Gruner becomes a victim of local monsters who have come to avenge him for the murder of their teenager. The remaining one scientist becomes the new caretaker.
So what is the meaning of the movie “Cold Skin 2017”?
Already the very first credits, the very first words are trying to direct thoughts to comprehend the ideas that the director tried to put into his work. And it’s good if the viewer is a thinker.
The opening phrases in the film are gradually revealed and become clear as the action progresses. “We’re usually not that far from the ones we hate.” What is it about? But the plot clearly shows, using the example of Gruner, how his fear of the natives grew into hatred for them. How he himself is looking for any reason to destroy them, how he goes to great lengths to prolong this massacre. And at the same time, he does not look for other ways at all: to the search for reconciliation. Even the female he once saved is used to satisfy his lust and humiliation. To maintain their own hatred for her fellow tribesmen. Gradually, he himself becomes a real monster, which he painted in his brain in relation to the natives.
The subsequent development of the plot raises other, no less difficult questions: how does a person’s behavior differ from the behavior of a “monster”, what forces you to step over this border? And the director is trying to show that those who cannot answer for their own thoughts and actions do not see the boundaries between good and evil.
The author tries to show how lonely the main characters are, even living together, how much their perception of the world and reality differs. The director very eloquently shows how a person can ruthlessly take the lives of creatures of a completely different kind, torture and rape a female, and at the same time, put his own, generally worthless life, above thousands of others. The other hero, seeing all this horror and cruelty of situations, does almost nothing.
The film is very sparingly, but shows the love relationship of the characters to their abandoned women. Someone is trying to retire, to forget himself alone, to run away from himself, to find something new in return.
The film raises a rather topical topic: the destruction, the murder of “not like everyone else.” About those for whom the meaning of life is war. According to the plot, it is clear that there was an opportunity to stop these slaughters, but Gruner is trying in every possible way to prevent this, looking for any pretexts and opportunities. For him, this is the meaning of life on the island.
Shooting harsh nature makes a big impression. This also adds tension to the picture, makes a certain sense. The severity of nature, the power of the ocean is constantly compared with human problems, which seem small and worthless in comparison with nature.
Meaning of the Cold Skin ending
The denouement of the film once again emphasized the fact that people are more at war with themselves, sometimes not understanding what they are doing. When in the final scene at the lighthouse the main character, who has already become his new caretaker, is told that there is a war going on in the world, he takes it very calmly. He has already survived his war. And not one! His thoughts are now more directed towards a peaceful, quiet life.
He found here what made him stay here, adapt to survive. The departure from him of the female, who lived with them even under Gruner, makes it clear that in the relationship between people and the natives, the best times of freedom and coexistence have already come.
General impression of the picture: very ambiguous. The film makes you think about many things, starting with “Who am I?” and ending with “What can I change?” Anyone who wants to reflect on global topics will first of all think: “Do I have the right to decide something for others or impose my vision on them?” But there is a very high probability that the majority of viewers will “bite” on the name and will expect this action, perceiving and understanding only this. And everything that the director put into this film will pass by their consciousness.
Write in the comments your meaning of the movie Cold Skin. We look forward to waiting!