PROGRAM
Second Skin
International Feature Film Competition
Three women filmmakers reconstruct testimonies from survivors of sexual violence through a raw blend of stop-motion, acting, and documentary essays. In their search for a language capable of naming the unspeakable without revictimising or aestheticising pain, they confront the desensitisation that violence produces in art. As the creative process unfolds, a fragile sisterhood develops among them, allowing them to share their own experiences. Together, they attempt to transform trauma into a collective act of resistance, memory, solidarity, and hope. The film refuses to soften the truth: by embodying the stories themselves, the directors become guides in a shared exercise of grief and empathy, in which confronting the unbearable is not a spectacle.
Mariia Lapidus
Mariia Lapidus is a writer, director, and activist. She studied filmmaking at VGIK film school and California Institute of the Arts. She now also teaches at CalArts. Her short film The City of the Sun (2026) was awarded at Visions du Réel. Second Skin received the Tiger award at the Rotterdam IFF.
Technical Data Sheet:
D/G/E/P: Mariia Lapidus
F: Lera Vetkhova
DA: Margo Shkalina
S: Maria Alejandra Rojas
I: Margo Shkalina, Lera Vetkhova, Mariia Lapidus
Contact:
Gargantua Film Distribution. Vladimir Nadein
E: acquisitions@gargantuafilm.it
W: gargantuafilm.it
IG: @gargantua_distribution


















