The Freedom Outside My Skin

Skin. For Esben, it's a thick border; Mounir can barely contain himself within it.

In the suburbs of Aarhus, two boys, Esben and Mounir, grow up and, whether they want to or not, their circumstances bring them together in a trivial friendship; the type of friends you are forced to become when no one else wants you. That is, until Mounir discovers that they might be more alike than he first thought. However, this revelation is short-lived, as Mounir must move to the capital to start a new life, and he is eager to do so, eager to become a new version of himself.

Eight years later, Mounir returns to Aarhus, excited for the first time in his life to start something school-related. Entering architecture school is his calling, he thinks, the last straw to prove himself worthy of something, academically. But Aarhus is small, and that's a fact he has to come to terms with quite radically when, at the first school party of the year, Mounir discovers that the boy he has been relentlessly hitting on is none other than his old friend Esben.

For Esben, Mounir's return is a blessing, but one that he disguises masterfully, for all he has learned about social interaction in the past eight years is to build up shields.