THE NEXT SKIN/LA PROPERA PELL/LA PROXIMA PIEL (Isa Campo, Isaki Lacuesta 2016)

A lost boy of 17 or so is returned seemingly to his mother, having disappeared from their home in the Spanish Pyranees eight years earlier after the death of his father and now been found living in a French orphanage. But is Léo really Gabriel, as his mother, Ana (Emma Suárez of Julieta believes? The film keeps us guessing interestingly all the way through. Excellent performances by Àlex Monner as Léo/Gabriel; Sergi Lopez as the boy's uncle; Bruno Todeschini as Michel, from the orphanage, and Igor Szpakowski as Joan, the lost boy's former playmate, with whom he develops a new relationship. I didn't completely believe all this, but it kept me fascinated nonetheless. Dialogue in Catalan and French.