Skin

In London in 1985, eleven-year-old Matty is left to make sense of his father Joe's sudden absence. Joe has gone, and no one around Matty will say where or why.

That summer, the heat settles over the city as Matty searches for his father, a search that leads him to the ponds on Hampstead Heath. Under the surface he finds a freedom he has not known before. On the banks he meets a close-knit group of men who offer him a refuge from a home life that keeps growing harder.

Fourteen years later, a new development sends an adult Matty off alone in a campervan, heading west through Ireland. He swims in the wild lakes known as loughs and follows the faint trail of clues Joe left behind. The journey becomes perilous, and Matty must rely on the generosity of people he barely knows. Safety comes at a cost, and as desire and fear intensify, the trip turns into a painful confrontation with the past.