Subskinians / Ihonalaiset is a web-based short film that discusses the questions of self-ownership and ecological relationships, and is based on Kanerva Lehtonen’s short story of the same name, written in 2015. The story revolves around a protagonist, who one day notices that something unexpected is growing out of her ear. This leads to a series of events that invites the spectator to contemplate on questions of consent as well as the division of self and other and human and nature.

The director Vilja Achté and the writer Kanerva Lehtonen are friends and when Kanerva sent her the story few years ago, she knew it had to be made into film: 'The story was so vivid, and there was something about it that spoke to the kinds of visual worlds that I was making, and so we decided to narrate it audiovisually. The film is a fraction of the original story, but lingers in a similar sense of wonder, bewilderment and sadness.'

The film is web-based, and alongside our website in which you can watch it in full, it is also watchable in five separate parts on a viewing platform www.ihonalaiset.com.