“You want my soul?”

            “I want your back.”

Provocative and transactional, the dialogue illustrates the film, The Man Who Sold his Skin’s pact with the Devil. From Tunisia, the film frames director Kaouther Ben Hania’s central conceit for the state of Syrian refugees, and is nominated for this year’s Best International Feature Academy Award.

The devil in question is Jeffrey Godefroy (Koen De Bouw), artist supreme, who needs a man’s back to create his latest work of art. Already a highly marketable name, Godefroy (free of God?) and his assistant Soraya, a blond Monica Bellucci, make an offer to Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) from Raqqa who fights for freedom, and wants only to be with Abeer (Dea Liane), the girl of his dreams, now married to a diplomat and living in Brussels. Godefroy makes him an offer he cannot refuse, involving his back, and his presence as an art installation. His journey to Abeer takes more than a passport.

On a list that includes Denmark’s entry, Another Round, featuring international superstar Mads Mikkelsen, –when director Thomas Vinterberg is also nominated for Best Director–, it is a question how The Man Who Sold His Skin will fare for an Oscar. That goes for the other contenders too: Quo Vadis, Aida?, a feature dealing with the Bosnian genocide, Better Days from China and the Romanian documentary, Collective, films, like Skin, that focus unblinkingly on grievous world issues. No matter. In the end, Sam Ali is a man who simply cannot turn his back on love.