Andy's Film World

4:30 (Singapore, 2005)

2009-09-27T19:51:00.020+03:00

Director: Royston Tan.

Principal cast: Xiao Li Yuan, Young-jun Kim.

Constant social interaction is not just an unavoidable subproduct of the ever-increasing urban co-habitation, it is also very much a prerequisite for our humanity in general and our own place in the surrounding society in particular. Every now and then, we learn about some young child who, not unlike Mowgli having been abandoned by humans after birth, grows up unaware of the expected human behaviour imitating instead the creatures that it has lived with, be it dogs, monkeys or whatever else. As a result, this child not only lacks any human language but often never even learns to walk upright. This aspect doesn’t apply to children only – humans learn throughout their lives, adapting to new places, new technologies, new people. But that is, of course not the end of line. The other main function of any social interaction is just that – social. Humans are also flock creatures who define themselves by their position in relation to the other humans surrounding them and whose mental stability depends on these relations. Loneliness and social exclusion are therefore some of the hardest things to endure for an overwhelming majority of the human kind.

Royston Tan’s second feature 4:30 is a study of loneliness and inability to break what is often just a shell created by circumstance and mounting bitterness towards fellow human beings as well as failure to communicate. The film’s central characters are Xiao Wu, an 11-year-old Chinese latchkey boy left to fend for himself after school while his mother is away on never-ending business trips and Jung, their thirty-something suicidal wreck of a tenant from Korea. The obvious obstacles to any communication between the two, such as the language barrier and the age gap, do not deter the boy from constantly attempting to establish a link to Jung. Just like a warmth-seeking missile, he never seizes to direct his attention towards him – he smells his chopsticks to find out what he had for dinner, he takes a photo of both of them together while Jung is asleep and even secretly cuts one of his pubic hairs – all to be entered into his journal which is entirely dedicated to documenting Xiao Wu’s observations of the tenant. Occasionally, he tries to get under Jung’s skin by putting on his boxer shorts and mimicking his daily routines, including shaving. Thus, his obsession with Jung becomes his own daily routine, a routine which he takes very seriously. Every night at 4.30, woken up by his several alarm clocks, he conducts his nocturnal forays into Jung’s bedroom. While the tenant is lying unconscious in his bed after yet another night of heavy drinking, no doubt aided by the pills which he also abuses, Xiao Wu inspects what little there is to inspect, searching for future entries into his journal.

Jung seems oblivious to Xiao Wu’s childish attempts at communicating with him. His own mind is grief-stricken by the loss of his girlfriend and he chooses to ignore even the boy’s unimpeded attempts at provoking a reaction from him. In a rare moment of actual interaction between the two one night on the stairs, the only thing Jung can think of is to offer the 11-year-old a cigarette while tears are welling up in his eyes. He even tries to say something to Xiao Wu in Korean, only the viewer doesn’t get any translation of what he says, just to emphasise the impenetrable wall between the two.

Leading a lonely existence in an adolescent world disconnected from the rest of the society, Xiao Wu is a typical product of surroundings which have little time to spare for one another. Growing up mostly on his own and feeling alienated in school, his only role models are fictional characters on TV shows whom he knows so well that he simply mimics every word one of them, ironically a disgruntled housewife, has to say. Unwittingly, Jung becomes his other role model being the only other person around. One of the focal scenes of the film has Xiao Wu reading out loud a composition he was supposed to write as part of his homework. The title of the composition is My Hero. In a somewhat shaky voice he presents Jung as his Korean father who has a distinct smell of beer and Johnson’s baby powder but also someone who loves him and cares for him and meets him every day after school. And herein lies the all too powerful distinction between the two – although they are both intrinsically lonely, their loneliness has been arrived at on two different levels which are never to meet. Most of the time, the two protagonists wear white shirts and tops. While in the boy’s case the white colour might symbolise his innocence, Jung’s white shirts resemble mostly a white flag. Xiao Wu is seeking human contact while Jung has given up on it.

Royston Tan’s art direction is impressive and his cinematography has a hypnotic, almost mesmerising effect. Although obviously not to everyone’s taste, 4:30 can be a rather meditating experience with sparse dialogue and long silent scenes where the viewer is given the opportunity to submerge in the significance of the seemingly insignificant. The film is also filled with subtle humour portraying everyday life of an extremely bored pre-adolescent boy. It cannot be recommended to any viewers craving action or wrapped-up explanations since much of the interpretation is left to ourselves but I would say that it’s exactly what gives this film a little extra to chew on after the credits are gone.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Mulligans (Canada, 2008)

2009-07-23T23:35:00.028+03:00

Director: Chip Hale.

Principal cast: Dan Payne, Charlie David, Thea Gill, Derek Baynham.

Why would anyone choose to live a lie? In great many societies across the globe gay people are effectively coerced into heteronormativity. In reality, succumbing to it is their only chance of survival with their secret emotions and desires usually forever remaining just that – a well-kept secret. But why does it happen in free, liberal societies where, to a great extent, you are supposed to be able to make your own choices? Hasn’t the iron grip of the heteronormative peer pressure become a lot weaker in the so-called enlightened West? Or do gay people here have completely other reasons to commit to a poster image of heterosexual suburban bliss? Whatever the answers to those questions, one thing seems to be a given – sooner or later the facade will collapse and many people will get hurt. Every choice that you make has certain consequences and you don’t always get a second chance. The title of the Canadian director Chip Hale’s debut feature „Mulligans” means exactly that - second chances. It’s a term used in golf which shouldn’t be surprising since the screenplay’s author Charlie David, who also plays one of the main characters, is said to be a keen golfer.

Chase (Charlie David) and Tyler (Derek Baynham) are best friends in college. When the summer break comes, Tyler takes Chase to his parents' summer retreat on the picturesque Vancouver Island. His dad, Nathan (Dan Payne) is a passionate golfer who spends most of his time on a golf course nearby while his domesticated wife, Stacey (Thea Gill) is mostly concerned with the appropriate „summer fun” for their youngest child nicknamed Birdie (and yes, it’s a golf term too). To the outside world Tyler’s family would certainly have looked like a textbook example of a successful traditional family – Nathan’s career is apparently quite rewarding since he can afford to drive around in a Porsche (not to mention this summer residence) and his wife doesn’t have to work, instead being able to concentrate on being a good wife to a caring husband and a good mother to healthy and intelligent children. The beautiful natural settings around them only emphasise the apparent harmony of their happy relationship. But if Chase, whose own father died when he was five and whose mother apparently isn’t really part of his life anymore, had an initial feeling that this was a family he would have loved to have himself, it couldn’t have lasted for too long for there was definitely „something rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark”.

When Tyler arrives on the island, he’s instantly thrown back into his seemingly traditional social circles for the summer with friends throwing wild parties and even what appears to be a steady „summer” girlfriend. Not aware of Chase’s homosexuality, he duly tries to set him up with girls, both at parties and at their house. Chase, who grows weary of pretending, finally decides to come out to Taylor which puts the latter into a certain state of quiet turmoil. Trying to come to terms with such turn of events, he even confesses to his father that „although it doesn’t change anything, it changes everything” and suddenly, small things, like close body contact with Chase while playing basketball, become troublesome and confusing. But as they are both trying to redefine their friendship, another person gets emotionally involved – Nathan, who turns out to be a classical closet case. Struggling with his own sexuality and his budding feelings for Chase, also he is cast into a state of mental turmoil triggered by this sudden confrontation between the life he has lived so far and what could have been.

When most of the family leaves for a weekend at Stacey’s mother’s place, Nathan and Chase stay behind. And it isn’t difficult to figure out that Nathan’s feelings give way to irrational behaviour and the two end up in bed. He is head over heels in love with Chase and can’t keep his hands away from the guy who grows more and more uncomfortable with the situation. Needless to say, they are soon found out by both Stacey and Tyler and the hell breaks loose. While Chase, in all essence, can just walk away, it is, of course, a completely different story for Nathan who has to make some serious choices in his life which will affect not only him but also those around him. Will he get a mulligan in his life? Or does he even really want one?

Nathan is pathalogically scared of making serious choices, especially if it involves something radical. Even when his wife forces him to confess that he is gay, his sheepish reply is still „I think so”. And when they contemplate their future, all he can say is that they shouldn’t rush things and ought to wait with any radical decisions. I guess Nathan’s pathologically indecisive nature is also what got him into this marriage in the first place and it’s definitely what gets some closeted gay people to procrastinate with their lives – „let’s just see how things develop from here”. Of course, not everybody was born strong-headed but if you continue living a lie for too long, you may never recover from it and eventually, it might just be too late to change anything. Desire to fit in and be like „everybody else” is a powerful one but if you aren’t like these fairly elusive „everybody else” sort of people, no amount of "wait-and-see" will ever change that.

The plot of „Mulligans” touches upon a highly relevant topic which hasn’t been discussed all too much in queer-themed cinematography and Charlie David deserves credit for his debut screenplay. However, the script suffers from several flaws. First of all, I find it somehow hard to believe that Chase and Tyler could have been best friends for apparently some time with Tyler being totally clueless about Chase’s sexuality. I’m sure there would have been plenty of opportunities to „test” Chase’s sexuality at college parties which undoubtedly would have been just as unrestrained with moral issues. Tyler’s reaction to Chase’s coming out was fairly believable and very plausible but I still couldn’t help noticing how mostly politically correct he and the rest of his family sounded, also after the revelation. It was also rather remarkable how quickly the storm actually died out and everybody was set on forgiving each other and „go steelers” (a reference you will understand if you watch the film). In the acting department it was often difficult to tell if the characters' overall stiffness should be attributed to the characters themselves or the actors. Well, to be honest, Charlie David, who is mostly known for his roles in Here TV!’s pseudo horror series „Dante’s Cove” which can in fact be better described as gay erotica in Carribean settings as well as a hustler in Casper Andreas’ „A Four Letter Word” (see my earlier review), is more of an onscreen hunk than a Shakespearean actor and I’m sure that Dan Payne’s physical appearance wasn’t completely coincidental either. Nevertheless, the film as a whole is thought-provoking and well-executed which certainly makes it worth your while.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

And here is a song from the film - Turn Around by Ben Sigston

turn around master -

La León (Argentina, 2007)

2009-07-12T22:58:00.016+03:00

Director: Santiago Otheguy.

Principal cast: Jorge Román, Daniel Valenzuela, José Muñoz, Juan Carlos Rivas.

Being gay in a rural area is always more complicated than in any urban milieu. Countryside’s conservativism owes partly to the fact that rural communities are relatively small with everybody seemingly knowing everybody and their entire family histories. Strangers are easily spotted and viewed with suspicion, often directly as a “threat” to the community’s integrity. “Otherness” among own folk is not appeciated either since any form of change is feared to tip the delicate balance between the underlying traditionalist understanding of how things should be and those “dangerously different” ways of the outside world. So why do many gay people who are definitely not included in the traditionalist understanding of the ways of a rural community still choose to stay instead of seeking a more accepting environment?

Well, being gay doesn’t automatically turn you into a cosmopolitan person. Nor does it always mean that a city is where you belong. And just like Ennis in “Brokeback Mountain” couldn’t leave his native redneck-riddled Wyoming simply because his heart belonged there, also Álvaro, the main protagonist of “La León” had chosen to stay on his native island, concealed deeply in the wetlands of the Paraná region in the humid northwest of Argentina.

It is easy to become mesmerised by the hypnotic landscapes of the Paraná Delta where the main river splits into several branches forming a complex labyrinth of subtropical wetlands. It must be this hypnotic effect that makes the inhabitants appear somewhat drowsy and definitely not very talkative. Each word that is uttered seems to come out due to sheer necessity and not for the pleasure of conversing. Forget all about the alleged Latin American temper and fast-paced living! People’s lives here are a far cry from the Brazilian samba – if anything, it’s a tango with some very slow steps. And some kind of bizarre tango of two bulldogs at each other’s throats is exactly how I would describe the growing tensions between Álvaro and Julio, nicknamed El Turu, the self-proclaimed guardian of the island’s traditions and values.

Álvaro is a soft-spoken gay man with big puppy eyes who makes his living harvesting reed and restoring books for a library on the mainland. He spends his free time boating the canal-like branches of the river fishing and occasionaly engaging in sexual encounters with visiting strangers in the woods where his sexual escapades are observed by some migrant labourers from Paraguay, illegally felling trees on a private property. Apparently not particularly judgemental, these misionaros, as El Turu scornfully refers to them, form a special bond with Álvaro. Being an outsider to a certain degree himself, he doesn’t share El Turu’s assessment that these people have come to destroy their community by taking all their work from them and flooding the village with their families. Actually, he couldn’t care less about these allegations. El Turu, on the other hand, whose position in the community apparently comes from being the captain of La León, the only boat connecting the village with the outside world, is full of contempt and hatred towards the migrants. Throughout the entire film, El Turu tries to persuade his fellow villagers “to do something about it”. His bigoted frame of mind comes to the viewers’ attention already in one of the opening scenes when he refuses to believe that a young man from the village committed suicide over some girl, claiming instead that the misionaros are surely behind his death. But the danger from the outside is in his eyes well aided by the danger within, namely Álvaro’s apparent homosexuality. In a community like this one, you are usually left alone if you go about your “non-traditional” sexuality quietly and aren’t caught out but unfortunately, there also always tends to be the odd bigot, the self-proclaimed defender of virtue who will try to catch you out and “teach you a lesson”. However, since the question of homosexuality preoccupies and troubles such people so much, it is also quite legitimate to assume that there is a very good personal reason for that – their own latent queerness. And El Turu is no exception. The two axes of confrontation in the film – the one between El Turu and Álvaro and the other one between El Turu and the misionaros reach a climax when El Turu himself, boiling in his frustration, tips the afore-mentioned balance.

The impressive black and white cinematography of “La León” is somewhat reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man” – the panoramic loneliness set against the river calmly flowing by while the minimal dialogue in the film bears resemblance to the moody style of his pal, Aki Kaurismäki. Nevertheless, this feature film debut from the hand of Santiago Otheguy has its own unique signature and I’m certainly looking forward to his future work.

You can watch the film's trailer here (in Spanish with Portuguese subtitles)

Were The World Mine (USA, 2008)

2009-04-19T21:59:00.017+03:00

Director: Tom Gustafson.

Principal cast: Tanner Cohen, Nathaniel David Becker, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane.

How many of us have not, at some point in our lives, fallen for straight guys and wished that they would somehow reciprocate our feelings but to little avail? Quentin Crisp used to muse about the great dark man (of the straight variety, that is) that all gay men allegedly dream about but can never get as it would be a contradiction in terms for a straight man to fall in love with another man. But although his theory is highly questionable, not to say pure nonsense if applied to all gay men, it is a fact of life that a mutual infatuation is hardly the way things always happen even among men who identify themselves as gay. And if you have no idea how to win the heart of your prince, wouldn’t a love potion come in handy? And a love potion is exactly what makes the main character’s day in Were The World Mine.

Timothy, a very handsome but somewhat shy high school kid is in love with Jonathan, his hunky classmate who plays on the school’s rugby team and dates one of the cheerleaders. Taunted at school for his queerness (which in small town America equals a lack of ambition in sports and no interest in cheerleaders), Timothy divides his free time between Max and Frankie, a self-proclaimed heteroflexible couple and his single mother, who not only struggles to make the ends meet by taking up the odd jobs of peddling cosmetics and such but (naturally) also has a hard time coming to terms with her son’s homosexuality. Nothing particularly spectacular is set to happen in Timothy’s life until he graduates the school and swaps his narrow-minded hometown for the big and, hopefully, more tolerant world. Or rather – nothing would have happened, had it not been for his literature teacher, the mysterious Ms. Tebbit who has a very special plan not only for Timothy but all of the town’s inhabitants.

As part of the school’s curriculum all the high school’s seniors, including Timothy are required to perform in a play. The play chosen by Ms. Tebbit happens to be A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and Timothy gets to play the part of Puck who, although actually an elf, is here referred to (surprise, surprise!) as a fairy. While learning his lines, Timothy comes across a recipe for a love potion which he then proceeds into making. When his friend Max comes to rehearse the play together with him, Timothy puts the love potion to test by sprinkling it through a pansy (!) into his eyes. And lo and behold, Max falls madly in love with him on the spot! Before long, Jonathan is all over Timothy while all his tormentors are making out with each other and his mother is pursued by her homophobic female boss. The town’s unaffected residents are in a complete state of shock and disbelief at this “epidemic of gayness” while the (apparently affected) mayor is busy marrying gay and lesbian couples in the Town Hall. But the love potion is bound to wear off sooner or later and the judgement day comes for Timothy when everyone’s free will is restored. Will everything just go back to “normal” then and will Jonathan forget all his feelings for Timothy?

It is clear that Timothy’s attempts to win the heart of his prince are not the only premise of this film. At one point, as he sprinkles the love potion into the eyes of his mother’s homophobic boss, he tells her to try walking in his shoes. A genuine understanding of someone else’s life and feelings is almost impossible to achieve unless you are forced to experience the same things and under the same conditions as this person. So what better way is there to change a homophobe’s mind than letting him/her fall in love with a person of his/her own sex, thus forcing these people to walk in our shoes. The real pity here is that this love potion will stay in Shakespeare’s Fairyland as I really wouldn’t mind trying it on the likes of Scott Lively and Pat Robertson. It would definitely do some good not only to them but also the rest of humanity.

Were The World Mine is also a musical film where songs are mostly performed when Timothy is daydreaming, providing for some very beautiful imagery set in the Fairyland. Fortunately, the film’s director doesn’t overdo the singing segments, so you don’t have to be a fan of musicals to enjoy this lighthearted comedy. Most of the cast is very goodlooking and there is no shortage of kissing scenes which would account, at least in part for the many audience awards this film has received at gay and lesbian film festivals. But it is also a beautiful fantasy which should appeal even to hardcore realists.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

20,13 (Portugal, 2006)

2009-03-08T21:56:00.015+02:00

Director: Joaquim Leitão.

Principal cast: Marco D'Almeida, Adriano Carvalho, Carla Chambel, Maya Booth.

It happens ever so often that people resort to religious arguments against homosexuality not because they are very religious but simply because they have run out of any rational ones. And these religious arguments are apparently powerful enough to lead to committing what ought to be considered as the ultimate sin – a murder of another human being. It seems, however, that in the minds of many so-called Christians homosexuality is a far worse sin than murder and they will murder you for your homosexuality believing that they are acting according to the will of God. But actual reasons for committing a homophobic murder can, nevertheless, be very prosaic and far more selfish than “saving” humanity from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the acclaimed Portuguese director Joaquim Leitão’s latest feature “20,13” it’s nothing else but scorned love.

The film’s plot is set on Christmas Eve of 1969 in a Portuguese army outpost in Mozambique during the ongoing colonial war. The outpost’s commander’s wife is flown in by a helicopter to join her husband on this occasion, only the good captain doesn’t seem to be overwhelmed with joy. In the meantime, an away mission headed by Lieutenant Gaio returns with a prisoner from the rebels’ forces reporting of some suspicious activity on the other side of the border. The prisoner is thrown into a makeshift cell while the reports of an imminent attack are dismissed as smugglers’ activities by the visiting Colonel who came with the same helicopter as the captain’s wife. It’s Christmas Eve and the army unit, seemingly consisting mainly of semiliterate country bumpkins from Salazar’s Portugal are mostly preoccupied with the approaching Christmas party.

Still, not everyone has partying on their minds as the private Vicente is doing his best entertaining the crowd singing a coquettish duo with Esperança, the unit’s paramedic’s wife. The captain suddenly leaves looking distraught while Esperança’s husband is steaming with jealousy, accusing her later on of rubbing herself up against every man in the unit. But it doesn’t last long before the cheerful party comes to an abrupt end just as the field chaplain is about to deliver his sermon when several shells explode outside and the unit finds itself under attack. The ensuing turmoil comes to a swift end when the enemy cannon suddenly stops shelling but it is soon discovered that someone attempted to murder the prisoner in his cell during the attack. The whole situation becomes even more enigmatic when Lieutenant Gaio and his fellow investigators also discover a passage from the Bible written in blood in the prisoner’s cell which turns out to be a quote from Genesis: Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities - and also the vegetation in the land.

The prisoner is quickly brought to the unit’s medical bay where Esperança’s jealous husband is baffled by the unauthorised absence of Vicente, his asistant. After several more sporadic attacks on the unit, the paramedic decides to go looking for Vicente only to find him lying inside one of the barracks shot dead and with a piece of paper in his hand with another quote from the Bible written on it: if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. The chaplain consults the Bible and finds out that the text found in the murdered private’s hand is the exact wording of Leviticus 20:13 (hence the title of the film) and he and Lieutenant Gaio set out on a murder investigation riddled with Biblical references while the “burning sulphur” literally is pouring over their heads as the enemy attacks resume. But does anyone really want to know the truth?

There is no doubt that by placing the story’s protagonists in the middle of a dirty colonial war the director questions the morality of the people who can only be described as moralistic bigots. When “God” starts “raining the burning sulphur” over the colonial army unit, is it because of the homosexual love found there or is it because it’s fighting a war where the only thing that counts is the body count? If the former were the case, I’m afraid it would be raining burning sulphur everywhere in the world pretty much non-stop. No, the burning sulphur came upon them for completely different reasons. And it certainly didn’t come from God or any other divine being. Those, who frothing at the mouth talk of God’s will and spend their lives shouting about it till they get blue in the face often drop dead with a heart attack. Wouldn’t you call that God’s will?

“20,13” is a drama of surpressed passions where glances are more honest than words since honest words dare not be uttered. Full of emotional tension and aptly illustrated horrors of war, Joaquim Leitão’s attempt to combine a colonial war with the issues of morality and Bible-bashing comes across as an honest voice raised against the criminal double-facedness of not just the army in question but the society it claims to defend at large. But it is also a murder mystery, so if you want to know who did it, you’ll have to watch it for yourselves!

Here you can watch the film's trailer (in Portuguese):

Clandestinos (Spain, 2007)

2009-01-25T22:19:00.012+02:00

Director: Antonio Hens.

Principal cast: Israel Rodríguez, Hugo Catalán, Mehroz Arif, Pepa Aniorte.

How does one become a terrorist? Is there a terrorist hotline a potential martyr can call to clarify such things? There must a number of criteria any terrorist wanna-be would be expected to fulfill before being able to join up. One thing, for instance, that would puzzle me is whether one can be gay and a terrorist at the same time. While the answer is self-evident when it comes to the radical Islamists, it isn’t necessarily a given when it comes to our own European brands – IRA and ETA. In any case, 18-year-old Xabi, the main character of the Spanish director Antonio Hens’ first feature film „Clandestinos”, should have called this hotline before he decided to try and win the heart of Iñaki, an older ETA commando, by staging a self-styled terrorist attack in the middle of Madrid, thus proving himself to be „worthy” of the old terrorist’s love, for they might have told him that the monochrome worldview of a terrorist’s mind doesn’t seem to have the ability to see any of the rainbow colours.

Xabi and his Mexican friend Joel stage a dramatic escape from a juvenile correctional facility in Ciudad Real in the south of Spain. Facing an imminent deportation to his native Morocco, also Driss seizes the opportunity and flees the prison with them. Soon thereafter the trio boards a bus bound for Madrid where they meet two girls who are returning from the sunny beaches of southern Spain. Joel doesn’t waste any time and quickly befriends the girls, so when they arrive in Madrid, it goes almost without saying that he stays with them. Driss who feels that he ows his new found freedom to Xabi follows him to Iñaki’s flat only to discover that it’s empty and the man himself is gone. Iñaki doesn’t reply to Xabi’s calls and seems to have vanished without a trace but that doesn’t make Xabi lose his heart. On the countrary, he is determined to prove to him that he has all it takes to be a useful gudari, fit to fight for the Basque cause.

Short of cash, he goes back to turning tricks, something he also did before ending up in prison. One day he is picked up by an elderly policeman who takes him back to his house. In the morning, while his trick is still asleep he goes through the drawers of a desk in his study and finds a gun. When the old guy suddenly appears in the doorway, Xabi panicks and flees the house with it. This turn of events prompts the old cop to initiate an investigation of his own which soon enough leads him to the correctional facility in Ciudad Real. Here he examines the young fugitive’s former lodgings, full of Basque flags and banners where he also comes across a photo of Xabi and Iñaki, a well-known Basque terrorist. Different pieces of the puzzle start to fit together.

In the meantime, Xabi is set on implementing his plan – he is to blow up the massive Spanish flag on Columbus Square in the Spanish capital with some home-made explosives. And it actually turns out to be a piece of cake to get hold of all the necessary ingredients for the bomb in a local DIY store. He also enrolls the help of Driss who would do anything for his new friend. At the same time, Xabi continues to pursue Iñaki whose female companion starts getting suspicious. After answering Iñaki’s phone to Xabi once, she decides to find out who this unwelcome stalker is and even pays him a visit threatening him with dire consequences if he doesn’t lay off. Obviously being a complete closet case, Iñaki denies any knowledge of the boy to his companion but when Xabi’s bomb does go off sabotaging the real ETA commandos’ plan, the Xabi problem becomes too paramount to be ignored any more. But the old policeman has his own plan how to rescue the lost soul of the wanna-be terrorist.

Despite its main premise, „Clandestinos” isn’t as much a film about terrorism and its roots as a need for identity and search for love. Being abandoned by his parents as a child, Xabi finds himself drawn to a trick who turns out to be a Basque terrorist. Through him he feels that he too has found not only love but also some sort of purpose with his life. People who have never been short of love rarely become fanatical supporters of a cause which doesn’t even have anything to do with them. The need to be loved and respected by the object of one’s desire can lead to extremes if one’s despair is bad enough. At the age of 18 people also tend to be uncompromising in their beliefs. The black and white understanding of things is also what actually helps the terrorist recruiters to find so many willing to die for the sake of a cause. The reason why Xabi, who was definitely ripe enough to be plucked by the ETA recruiters, was never taken onboard has to be sought in the circumstances under which he and Iñaki met. For Iñaki to admit to being gay would most probably have meant a political suicide.

„Clandestinos” may seem like a heavy drama. It is not. Honestly speaking, I’m not sure any Spanish director is actually capable of making a drama à la Fassbinder or Bergman. Even the delicate matter of terrorism, which has claimed many Spanish lives, is treated here with a great deal of black humour. It should also be noted that the film provides a fair deal of eye candy too since our protagonists aren’t shy of their bodies and don’t mind showing them off. Terrorists or not, the feeling that you get after watching this film is definitely not terror.

Here you can watch the film's trailer (in Spanish):

The Lost Coast (USA, 2008)

2009-01-11T01:36:00.005+02:00

Director: Gabriel Fleming.

Principal cast: Ian Scott McGregor, Lucas Alifano, Lindsay Benner, Chris Yule.

Sexuality is never black and white. No matter how much the mainstream society is set on mainstreaming people in its midst by trying to categorise everything and put everyone in a box with an easily recognisable label on it, there will always be grey areas defying such approach. Gabriel Fleming’s second feature film „The Lost Coast” navigates through one such grey area challenging, in director’s own words, the dominant gay/straight dichotomy. Well, other people may call this grey area bisexuality but I guess that’s also just another box.

Mark and Lily, who share a flat, are joined by Jasper and Caleb, their old high school friends for the Halloween celebrations in San Francisco’s Castro district. All four of them still in their early twenties, they are ostensibly set for a raucous night out, one night per year when you can look like Charles Manson or Mother Theresa and still get laid. But what is supposed to be a fun night out turns into a miserable wandering through the desolate inner landscapes of the film’s protagonists, unearthing old half-secrets and potent emotions barely hidden behind their cynically cool exterior.

The story is narrated as an e-mail which Jasper writes the day after the Halloween night to his girlfriend, currently somewhere overseas, the purpose of which is as much to clear Jasper’s head and put words to his feelings and frustrations as it is meant to explain to his girlfriend the nature of the relationship he and Mark shared in high school. Now an out and proud gay man, Mark actually used to date Lily in those days. But once, when all three of them went on a camping trip to the titular Lost Coast somewhere in northern California, the two boys struck a relationship which couldn’t be described as other than intimate. The two boys weren’t, however, exactly on the same wave length when it came to the feelings that this „fooling around”, as Lily refered to it at one point, aroused in them. Mark was always seen as the cool and smart guy, always excelling at everything he did while Jasper was more of an introverted person, feeling privileged to be Mark’s friend. By being with him, he felt better about himself, letting Mark’s coolness spill on him too while to Mark, he apparently was mostly a guy that he could experiment with. After graduation they parted their ways, evidently no questions asked but now back face-to-face with each other, the ghosts of their past relationship came back to haunt them - feelings that were never discussed, words that were never said. And the situation isn’t made easier by the presence of Lily whose resigned and melancholic disposition is only reinforced by her Pierrot’s outfit or Caleb whose tactless open-mouthedness only serves as a catalyst for the unavoidable confrontation.

At one point, as the foursome are mooching about in Castro’s district, Caleb asks Lily if Jasper is actually straight to which she only replies with a „well” which sounds more like „where do I begin”. Being able to put people in boxes, especially with respect to their sexuality, makes things easier for so many people as it replaces any need for independent thinking and any imagination whatsoever. Sexuality, just like people’s personality traits, is individual and although most people find themselves attracted to one gender in the end, it doesn’t mean that they have never had or been capable of having feelings for both genders. Jasper may not be gay but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t in love with Mark. At the same time, Mark’s feelings for Lily may have been as genuine when they dated.

„The Lost Coast” is very much a poetic film. Its dreamlike pseudo-flashback sequences of Jasper, Mark and Lily wandering through the cold and unhospitable landscapes of the fateful coast resonate perfectly well with the lyrics of their emotions. They walk through thick grass, swamps and barren bushes, sometimes waiting for each other, sometimes barging ahead on their own. The nearly transcendental atmosphere of the film complements its sense of raw authenticity, well aided by the convincing performances of the young actors. All in all, it’s one of those rare films where the slow-pacedness eventually leads to a meditative state of mind and that’s not so bad for a change.

Here you can watch the film's trailer:

Piao lang qing chun (漂浪青春, Drifting Flowers, Taiwan, 2008)

2009-01-03T23:47:00.010+02:00

Director: Zero Chou.

Principal cast: Lu Yi-Ching, Serena Fang, Chao Yi-Lan, Sam Wang.

A train relentlessly whisking in and out of tunnels while the accordion’s cheerless wailing fills the air shared by disconsolate people with no self-evident destination may not be everyone’s first idea of a Taiwanese film about lesbian life, nor may it be to everyone’s taste. Still, Taiwanese LGBT-themed cinematography continues to provide a breath of fresh air to the contemporary depictions of queer life on film. The 2007 winner of The Best Feature Teddy Award for “Spider Lilies”, the director Zero Chou impresses with her third feature film “Drifting Flowers”, a three-parter with interrelated and mostly unconventional storylines about the perpetual search for happiness and love and its many failures.

The first part which is titled “May” relates the story of a relationship between May (or Meigo, as she is properly called in Chinese), an 8-year-old girl and her much older sister Jing who is blind and works as a singer at a local restaurant where her performances are accompanied by the accordion-playing Diego, a very tomboyish appearing girl. The little girl is fascinated by Diego’s androgynous look and finds it hard to call her “madame” as her sister insists. Soon enough Diego starts walking Jing home, taking an interest in her which is certainly beyond their work relationship. The trouble begins when May’s fascination develops into a crush on Diego. A child’s egocentric nature and very uncomplicated, yet single-minded frame of mind has no place for sharing when it comes to owning its suddenly discovered object of childish desire. And predictably enough everybody loses, with the possible exception of the heteronormative society in whose midst the three are planted.

As Jing and Diego are rutinely performing at the restaurant for yet another wedding party, the film smootly glides into its second part, “Lily”. Only this particular occasion isn’t very ordinary as they are performing at a sham wedding between Yen, Diego’s camp gay friend and Lily, a lesbian girl and the only daughter of an ill-tempered puppet theatre owner. The real lovers of both newlyweds are actually at the wedding too and at one point they even restore some sort of normality in a backroom of the restaurant where they shortly convene. But from there we promptly take a jump into their future which looks as bleak as the past looked festive. Lily who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and looking rather old and feeble is visited by Yen, her official husband who also appears in a state of decay. We quickly learn that he has been HIV-positive for years and his lover seems to have found a young and healthy replacement for him. Lily is brought out of her near-catatonic state by Yen’s sudden appearance only to mistake him for Ocean, her old love who evidently left her years ago when Lily had become ill. Yen’s somewhat androgynous traits make the situation believable, and although he tries to persuade her that he isn’t Ocean, it falls on deaf ears and Lily applies her whole remaining arsenal of wit and emotional inducement to try and prevent the person she sees as her old love from leaving her again. “Lily” is easily the most moving part of the film, full of despair but also unexpected hope.

The third part, “Diego” provides another jump in time, only this time backwards. We go back to the young version of Diego, full of frustration and lust. She is often mistaken for a boy and finds the girly clothes that her mother tries to make her wear gross and highly uncomfortable. She hangs out with the young version of Yen wishing that he was a girl who in turn would love Diego to be a guy. One evening after her homophobic brother, obviously afraid that she may claim half of the family business, makes her quit their parents’ puppet theatre, she gladly joins on stage scantily-clad Lily whose father makes her sing cheery popsicle songs drawing a joyous crowd, much to the annoyance of Diego’s parents whose somewhat more “traditional” performances fail to draw much attention. Diego radiates happiness while dancing away to Lily’s rendition of “The Heartless Train”, a Chinese line dance classic, and later the two of them share brief moments of intimacy, making out and talking about future - future that we as viewers already know a thing or two about.

We know about “the heartless train” whisking them in and out of tunnels - never pausing, never giving them a break. But we also know that at the same time they will never stop searching for love and happiness. One critic called “Drifting Flowers” a morose portrayal of gay life. I disagree. Both the conditions that societies outline for gay people and the choices that we make ourselves make our lives morose or otherwise. Portraying people who have suffered blows in their lives or are desparate or frustrated is not morose. It’s a reality for many people, and this film certainly doesn’t suggest that the train they’re on will now crush into a brick wall, killing all onboard.

“Drifting Flowers” is an atmospheric film which feels warmly about its characters. It is also a fairly big step away from the traditional Taiwanese arthouse cinema which most audiences find unaccessible. The film is rather moody in its tone and its musical score is mostly melancholic but it shouldn’t be mistaken for depressing. It should be experienced more like the flowers that it alludes to, taking in all the fragrance while they are drifting past you.

Here you can watch the film's trailer:

Barcelona (un mapa) (Barcelona (A Map), Spain, 2007)

2008-12-28T00:35:00.019+02:00

Director: Ventura Pons.

Principal cast: Núria Espert, Josep Maria Pou, Rosa Maria Sardà, Jordi Bosch.

It is peculiar how dictators across the world, nominally professing to different ideologies, are always adamant to be seen as defenders of the „traditional” family values. There is, of course, nothing particularly suprising in that – people coerced into appearing and acting as a homogenous and „happy” mass are much easier to control. Anybody sticking out can be instantly identified and eliminated. However, to great chagrin of all dictators, this only means that the „exemplary” citizens quickly learn double speak and double act while all behaviour inconsistent with the „traditional values” endorsed by the regime is simply consigned to the shadowed fringes of the society. Dictators are disposed of or die, regimes change but their highly harmful legacy of secrets and lies can last for many generations. Still, sooner or later the façades of the „exemplary traditional families” will inevitably crumble and the shadowed fringes will come to light, just like it happens in „Barcelona (A Map)”, a film by Ventura Pons set in the Catalonian capital some 30 years after Franco’s death, based on a novel by Lluïsa Cunille „Barcelona, A Map Of Shadows”.

Rosa and Ramon are an elderly couple who are living in a spacious old Barcelona flat. Not requiring all the space themselves, over the years they have rented out some of the rooms. But now, as terminally ill Ramon is slowly preparing for his final moments on this planet, the couple have asked the three current tenants to move out as quickly as possible. The film’s account takes place over the course of one night. As tenants come home one by one, the pair take their time to urge them to keep their promise and vacate the premises before Monday. The film’s story is displayed as five dialogues with a striking pattern – while Rosa talks to the only male tenant, Ramon takes care of the two ladies. This, however, only emphasises the contrast between the ingrown „traditional” façade of the couple and the dark secrets they are about to reveal.

The three tenants – a 40 something lady giving private French lessons, a 31-year-old failed football player working as a security guard at a shopping mall and a pregnant Argentinian migrant worker – can all be described as examples of urban solitude. They all have one thing in common – they have no where else to go, nor do they really care about moving on. The French teacher doesn’t get along with her son and can only moan about God and French vanishing from the local people’s lives at the same time. The guard is separated from his wife and his only ambition seems to be beating up his wife’s new lover with his service gun. The Argentinian girl has no family or friends in this city and generally has difficulties communicating with people in Barcelona which isn’t only down to her inability to speak Catalonian. At one point she exclaims that „here, for someone to look into your eyes you have to fall down”. And in a figurative sense, in these conversations they all have to fall down before they can truly look into each other’s eyes.

During the course of the night we learn that Ramon has one particular secret (one of many). When he worked as an usher at the city’s Opera House, he often sneaked into the artists’ wardrobes and dressed up in the different outfits found there, preferably women’s clothes. A secret favourite pastime which has survived to this day and which has once been accidentally witnessed by the Argentinian girl. In his conversation with the French teacher, Ramon actually confesses to that himself. When asked by her if he would have liked to have been found out, his answer is no. His answer is the same when the French teacher gives him a departing gift, a black and white photograph of a naked man dancing over the body of his murdered mother, and asks him if he’s never felt the need to get undressed just to be really looked at? In many ways crossdressing and undressing have the same quality – they can reveal your true self. But while crossdressing will ruin your official façade, full nudity will be seen as the ultimate intimacy, baring yourself completely in the eyes of the beholder. There is no place for either in a shadow existence.

The fourth conversation takes place between Rosa and her homosexual brother who had just picked up a hustler in a sauna but left him at home since the guy managed to fall asleep before any action took place. He wants her to run away with him while she wants him to attend to her ill husband. But the brother and sister turn out to be something quite different when we learn another secret during the fifth and final conversation which takes place between the two old spouses themselves. During this conversation Ramon also gives Rosa an old map of Barcelona where he, having once worked as a courier on foot, marked all the shadowed streets to avoid too much direct sunlight - a map of shadows.

True to its title, „Barcelona (A Map)” maps the shadowed lives of people trapped behind the façades of „traditional values”, secretly wishing to set the whole city ablaze, especially Sagrada Família, the famous cathedral designed by Gaudí which still stands unfinished, a symbol of uncompleted lives of our protagonists. To burn something down may also be necessary to be able to build something new. It is a slowly-paced film whose characters are full of surprises with a distinct similarity, however seemingly unlikely, to Pedro Almodovar’s universe. By dissecting its characters, the film also reveals Franco’s legacy in the fabric of the Spanish society. Fascism begins in the family, as everything else. At one point, Rosa who recently watched the traditional Spanish bullfight, notes with a certain surprise that the mostly foreign spectators were cheering the bulls instead of the bullfighters. This was a note of optimism, of changed times. Siding with the underdogs and opposing the brutality of force is the opposite of fascism. The map of shadows needs not exist anymore.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Avant que j'oublie (Before I Forget, France, 2007)

2008-12-20T00:24:00.025+02:00

Director: Jacques Nolot.

Principal cast: Jacques Nolot, Marc Rioufol, Bruno Moneglia, Bastien d'Asnières.

Ageing isn’t a kind process to most people but it can be a lot worse if your dashing looks and athletic body used to be your main source of income. „Before I Forget”, the final installment of Jacques Nolot’s trilogy about gay life in Paris follows the daily routines of a 58-year-old former hustler (or gigolo as he prefers to be called himself) Pierre whose seemingly well-off life cannot conceal the fact that his decaying body is only the visible tip of the chilly iceberg which his life has become. The film’s director, Jacques Nolot stars himself as Pierre in this rather melancholic, still surprisingly unsentimental account of a person’s dusk on the fringes of the society.

The film opens with a black circle emerging as a dot on a white screen. Slowly but steadily the circle grows bigger until it swallows the entire screen, thus making the viewer take a plunge into the kind of oblivion which Pierre is facing. Living off the money provided by former wealthy lovers, Pierre spends his days meeting old gigolo friends, going to a psycho- therapist, trying to write, engaging young hustlers or just watching life pass by at his local bistro over a beer and a sandwich.

Conversations with his friends and acquaintances are devoid of any passion or real interest in what the other has to say. All topics seem to circle around the prices of rentboys and how poorly they are doing moneywise themselves while trying to convince the counterpart that he should feel lucky and privileged. There is no room for genuine compassion or empathy in these conversations, so the only people who can stand Pierre’s moaning are the ones he pays, namely his psychotherapist and the hustlers who treat it as a professional duty to listen to him. Pierre sometimes talks of suicide and how even seemingly well-adjusted people do it but his composed façade won’t let his surroundings take him seriously and only ascribe such talk to his attention seeking. The thought of his death approaching has never really been absent in Pierre’s mind. Already at the age of 25 he decided not to make any investments since he didn’t expect to live much longer. And for the past 24 years Pierre has had his HIV-positive status hanging over him as the Sword of Damocles, always expecting the worst but never actually succumbing to the virus.

He did, however, make some investments. At the age of 25 when he had already put a cross on himself, he met Tountoune, a former society gigolo who became his lover and benefactor. Although they never lived under the same roof, they were together for almost 35 years. Tountoune had also willed his entire fortune to Pierre but his will was never registered with a lawyer because of some quarrels the two had in their last years, so when Tountoune suddenly died on the day they were supposed to meet for lunch, Pierre was only left with two life insurances in his name as his benefactor’s family naturally removed the handwritten will from the desk drawer where it was kept for many years. Pierre feels cheated out of his old lover’s inheritance, the only pension a former hustler can hope for, but the whole ordeal only seems to motivate him to put a bigger effort behind writing.

Despite his writing ambitions, Pierre has never been much of a reader himself. Although the bookshelves in his flat (which he actually owns) don’t display much empty space, he claims that he falls asleep after the first page he’s trying to read. He laments his lack of culture when he visits his shrink, still he is driven to put his own thoughts on paper for others to read. His apparent inability to concentrate in order to read seems to be the same force that makes him write – his fear of the oblivion, the black circle which threatens to devour him before it’s too late to leave a footprint in the world of the living. Before he forgets. And despite his talk of suicide and Pasolini’s beautiful death, he doesn’t really want to go as yet. Although he claims that nothing interests him anymore, he spitefully resists a new HIV treatment since it may have side effects – loss of hair and looks. He still dresses elegantly and rarely lets his guard down in front of others. His obvious vanity at 58 suggests that he is still the same defiant and proud person behind his fatalistic façade. The final scene of the film, powerfully supported by Mahler’s music, masterfully shows this defiance of the oblivion he’s inevitably facing with all the dignity you can expect from an old unbroken queen.

„Before I Forget” is a stylistically flawless film which leaves the discerning viewer with a sense of empowerment. Unmistakeably French in its existentialist outlook and poetic camera work, this film is a sombre study of what may be in store for a person outside of the mainstream society toward the end of his days.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Shelter (USA, 2007)

2008-12-10T22:44:00.032+02:00

Director: Jonah Markowitz.

Principal cast: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes, Katie Walder.

American cinematography has a relatively long tradition of easy-to-digest- and-drop-a-tear-or-two coming of age and coming out films. In a way, it has set a standard for such films for the mainstream queer audiences for as long as such films have been available for the very same target group. Here! TV’s first own feature “Shelter” is in many ways nothing but a continuation of this tradition, only with gay parenting issues thrown in as an extra subplot to try and catch the tides of the time. But while professional critics are busy calling this film flat and uninnovative, the average gay viewer out there is in a hurry to order this film on DVD after having given it numerous Audience Awards at this year’s queer film festivals. And that is utterly unsurprising – a romantic drama with a seemingly happy ending where the two main characters, played by hunky straight actors, use every excuse to show a bit of skin (either surfing or during some more intimate exercises), cannot be any further away from the gloom and doom of “Brokeback Mountain” and Prop 8. And that certainly sells.

The film’s plot evolves around Zach, a serious looking fellow in his early twenties and his rather dysfunctional family – his sister Jeanne, a single mother whose 5-year-old son Cody has found a fatherly figure in Zach as well as their ill and rather absent-minded father who seems to be more of a burden than a support. Feeling responsible for his family’s well-being, Zach has put his own future plans and needs on hold playing a surrogate father to Cody while his sister is busy finding a new man in her life. He spends his free time painting artsy graffitti on the walls of his neighbourhood, dreaming of an artist’s career and, since the film is set in the LA suburb of San Pedro, taming waves with his surfboard. Occasionally, he hangs out with his childhood friend Gaby and even dates Tori, a local girl. His relationship with her can at best be described as half-hearted – it is clear that she expects a lot more from him than he is willing or capable of giving. The pace of life is slow and physically undemanding but still there isn’t much that seems to put a smile on Zach’s face.

One day at the beach, he runs into Gabe’s brother, Shaun whom he hasn’t seen for some time. Shaun, an aspiring writer, has come down to San Pedro from his home somewhere in urban LA after an ended relationship to spend some time at his family’s house by the beach which is obviously only used every now and then as a getaway by different members of his family. The two hook up reminiscing about old times, surfing and burning midnight oil on Shaun’s terrace. Life seems easy and unrestrained. Only Zach’s sister seems to be worried – “doesn’t Zach know that Shaun’s gay?” In fact, he does – he even read Shaun’s first novel when it came out and, apparently, this novel was rather clear on the subject matter. Shaun is surprised but delighted. However, it isn’t long before first clouds appear on their sky – one night after a few beers on his terrace, Shaun kisses Zach. On the following day, Zach is all sullen and cold towards Shaun who, however, doesn’t seem to take his sudden change of mood too seriously. But it’s a different story for Zach – his unexpected feelings for Shaun are a torture – he’s torn between his loveless but comfortable life on one hand and this whole new world of homosexual desire on the other. Torn or not, he still chooses to embrace the latter and they are soon involved in a passionate relationship. A relationship which despite all the happiness that it brings to both protagonists, is kept a secret to the outside world.

Having an affair with Shaun doesn’t prevent Zach from continuing with his role as the de facto head of the family. Jeanne never fails to seize an opportunity to force Zach to babysit Cody while she’s working on her love interest Alan whose current interests in life as well as future plans haven’t got much room for the little boy. Instead, Cody gets to spend a lot of time in Shaun’s house and becomes very infatuated with his new adult friend. It is also Cody who unintentionally brings the secret affair to light. This sudden disclosure not only becomes a true test for Zach and Shaun’s relationship but also forces Zach to take a fight with his inner demons and choose his own path in life.

The inner struggle that Zach experiences seems to have three dimensions. Coming to terms with one’s own sexuality and coming out to the outside world are two that are known all to well to most non-heterosexual people. The third one is about finding a balance between one’s own needs and those of the others. Sacrificing oneself for the sake of one’s family or, for that matter, even one’s country usually only creates self-appointed martyrs who often end up bitter and lonesome, having driven away other people by their self-righteousness and beforehand doomed expectations from these very same people that they are allegedly sacrificing themselves for. Others just let objects of their selfless care tread all over them and take them for granted. And that which is taken for granted seldom yields any respect or is even generally noticed or appreciated. Needless to say, finding this balance is a lot more difficult process in real life than it may sound. For those who don’t automatically fit into the categories of either “Mother Theresa” at one end of the spectrum or “The Absolute Selfish Bastard” at the other, this process is a never-ending story. However, all these three dimensions can also be directly intertwined. Often people who cannot find acceptance in society or themselves due to their sexuality seek to apply their energy and emotions to tasks which make them forget, if only for a time, their own needs and personal life. By filling his days and his head with his family’s needs, Zach mentally postponed having to deal with questions like: why wasn’t he really interested in physical contact with the girl he was dating or any other girls for that matter? Why did he read Shaun’s gay novel in the first place? There is a significant number of people out there who spend their lives taking care of other people’s problems and needs simply because they don’t have a personal life themselves, or are too afraid to even think of having one. Finding self-respect and creating respect for oneself in others are two very essential steps one must take to be able to live a fullfilling life. And somebody who lives a fullfilling life also has a much stronger capacity to reach out to others in need of help. Toward the end of the film we see Zach finally attempting to take these steps.

Still, the whole gay parenting aspect in the film’s plot is more of a way of letting Zach have his cake and eat it than a real take on the issue. In the end, Zach isn’t forced to choose between his love life and taking care of Cody after his mother deserts him to move to Oregon with her boyfriend. Being a responsible young man in need of both a physical and emotional shelter, he and Cody simply move in with Shaun who seems to be more than happy with the arrangement. And surprise, surprise – Shaun’s home in LA is basicly next door to the art school where Zach has just been enrolled. Hmmm, a little too convenient?

This is clearly the film’s biggest and most obvious flaw. To the eye not completely blurred by the tears of happiness felt towards the budding family, Zach actually appears to be more of a gold-digging opportunist than someone passionately in love with Shaun. Also Shaun’s amazing availability and accommodation of Zach’s every tantrum just leaves me wondering if that Shaun character is for real and hasn’t been planted on Earth by a hostile alien race whose objective is to lull us into false security and then eat us? Or will he now turn out to be the real Mother Theresa of the two?

Whatever the answers to these questions, one thing seems certain – these apparent flaws in the film’s script will not deter most viewers from loving this film. And if you wish to have a relaxed and romantic evening at home with your boyfriend (or just wishing you had one) at Christmas and still feel that you’re watching something deep and meaningful without drowning yourself in existential anxieties afterwards, this might just be the film.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Campillo Sí, Quiero (Campillo Yes, I Do, Spain, 2007)

2008-11-30T20:44:00.022+02:00

Director: Andrés Rubio.

Editing: Daniel Ramo.

When, in July 2005, the Spanish parliament finally passed the law which granted the right to marry to homosexual couples, the battle for equality was still far from over. With the Catholic church at the helm of the opposition, mayors and civil registrars in several major Spanish cities refused to implement the new law claiming freedom of conscience which, of course, was nothing more than plain old religious bigotry. At the same time, Francisco Maroto, the mayor of Campillo de Ranas, a village of about 50 inhabitants deep in the mountains of Guadalajara north of Madrid, stepped forward and said that everyone was welcome to be wed in his town hall. Since then, Campillo de Ranas has not only become somewhat of a gay wedding Las Vegas but also substantially revived its economy.

„Campillo Yes, I Do” takes us on a journey to a picturesque village set in an area which has experienced decades of stagnation and decay. Unable to find work or create any meaningful existence for themselves, people born and raised here fled to the cities or other, more prosperous regions. It was therefore a radical decision on Francisco Maroto’s part when he decided to leave his native Madrid and settle as a beekeeper in this remote countryside area. It should also be mentioned here that Francisco is himself gay and being gay outside of the big cities in Spain is usually as difficult as in most other countries. Being a lot younger than most of his new neighbours and full of energy, he ran for Mayor in 2003 and got himself elected to manage the local community which in this case was an unpaid job. But soon enough his rural adventure took a dramatic turn and he found himself at the centre of attention of the whole country’s media when he publicly announced that all those same-sex couples turned down in other places could come and be wed in his tiny village. It was a bold step in a rural community whose most precious building was an old stone church in need of repair. When he came back to his office after the announcement had been made, he saw that there were 18 messages on his answering machine. He really had to pull himself together to listen to them, expecting the worst kind of verbal abuse and threats from neo-nazis and their like. To his great relief, every single message expressed support for his brave actions and wished him luck. Also, on the day of the first same-sex wedding, almost the whole community, mostly elderly people, showed up at the town hall to protect their mayor since they also expected protesters. Only no protesters came.

„Campillo Yes, I Do” doesn’t just take us on a journey to a picturesque Spanish village. In a sense, it takes us to a different world. A new world. A world of tolerance and acceptance. Utopia, if you like, where villagers go in their weekly Catholic processions carrying a statue of Virgin Mary on their shoulders and then later greet the newlywed gay and lesbian couples with the same sense of joy and pride in their local community. Yes, it does sound like utopia. Only in this case it’s real – Campillo de Ranas is an actual village in an actual country. So, how can it be?

I once asked a Spanish gay rights activist how come Spain, a country which is still perceived as one of the strongholds of the Catholic church, has introduced the institution of same-sex marriage and how come there hasn’t been a counter-revolution yet, especially seen as 80% of the population consider themselves Catholic? To which he replied that much of the explanation had to be sought in Spain’s turbulent past. During the many decades of Franco’s dictatorship the local Catholic church discredited itself in the eyes of many a Spaniard by actively and willingly co-operating with the oppressing regime. Therefore the words of the church carry a lot less weight here than in, say, Italy. Associating oneself with a particular religion is often just a question of tradition. And it doesn’t automatically entail following the words of that religion’s self-appointed representatives blindly. A nationwide poll conducted around the time the law was passed showed that 66% of the population supported it and roughly 50% of the population also supported the rights of homosexual couples to adopt children. I guess this is as far as a self-proclaimed Catholic country can veer from the official Vatican dogma and it’s nothing short of impressive. When the Spanish people were liberated from the yoke of Franco’s regime, a great majority of them embraced the free world and its diversity with an enthusiasm and passion only rivalled by flamenco. And just as Campillo de Ranas saw a boom in its hospitality business with old taverns and inns re-opened and new ones added, the whole country, too, has blossomed economically in the past decades. And it’s just self-evident that there is a direct connection.

It might be needless to add that Francisco Maroto was re-elected as Mayor in 2007 with an absolute majority of votes. It is also somewhat ironic that the old church has now had the necessary repairs as a result of the village's new niche in the wedding industry.

Andrés Rubio’s first documentary is a powerful testimony to the virtues of love and tolerance, mutual respect and acceptance. A world devoid of bigotry and imagined divisions is also a prosperous one. The only thing that remains to be said is - ¡Viva Campillo! And I’m absolutely certain that if Jesus ever existed, he would have thrived here unconditionally!

Here you can watch a short fragment from the film

Born Again (USA, 2006)

2008-11-23T22:43:00.016+02:00

Director: Markie Hancock.

Producer: Kathryn Gregorio.

There is a great divide in the American society – one that is based upon religion. Ever since the (in)famous „Mayflower” docked in Plymouth, Massachusets back in 1620, the US has been home to a significant share of the world’s Christian fundamentalist population. The alarming news is that it still is and it’s fighting like never before not to lose its deadly grip on the policy-makers in the world’s most influential nation. Markie Hancock’s documentary „Born Again” is a personal account of how she has saved herself from the clutches of fundamentalist religion (into which she has had the misfortune to be born) and how through the process of personal liberation she has indeed been born again.

For Markie Hancock religious indoctrination began as soon as she was able to comprehend anything. Most of her childhood memories have to do with religion. There were Sunday morning services and Sunday evening services, Wednesday night prayer meetings and Friday night Bible school, vacation Bible camps, baptisms, youth meetings, missionary weeks and missionary conferences, morning devotions and evening devotions, Bible memory and bedtime stories - a seemingly never-ending process of worshipping God and confirming one's faith. In her own words, it was difficult to tell where the religion ended and the family began. Most of all, she was afraid not to go to Heaven and she would do anything her parents asked her to. When she was at school, she couldn’t go to any parties because of all the „lewd things” happening there. And instead of the highlight of most American teenagers’ school life - the prom, she would have to go to the alternative organised by the church – in every way as drab and devoid of any of the usual suspense as it sounds. And while a wave of youth rebellion swept across the Western world in the late 60s and 70s, there was definitely not a hint of it in Markie’s life.

Things started to change when Markie enrolled at the evangelical Wheaton College in West Chicago. Despite the fact that all the students were forced to sign the pledge of not drinking, smoking or even dancing, facing immediate expulsion if violating these rules, life at the Academy was the beginning of the end of her Christian years. It was here that she began to develop feelings for other girls and realised that there was a world to be explored beyond the thick walls of her parental home. After studying theology at Princeton for a year, she moved to Berlin under the pretext of studying theology and German there. In reality, she needed to get as far away from home as possible. Berlin for Markie became synonymous with falling in love and exploring her lesbian sexuality in an atmosphere of personal freedom which she had never experienced before. But these were exciting and troubled years at the same time – a divided soul in a divided city. She knew that by leaving religion she would lose her family but she also realised that by not leaving it, she would lose herself. The time had come for Markie to make a decision and face the music – it was her life as an individual that was at stake and leading a double life suddenly was no longer an option.

Markie Hancock uses footage from her family’s personal archives and conducts interviews with the members of her family on camera, allowing everyone to have a word. There is her mom taking time to explain why it would be wrong for her to allow Markie to sleep in their guest room together with her partner. There is her father who is adamant to explain the beauty of being an evangelical Christian. And there are also Markie’s siblings – Nathan and Mike. But while Mike dreamingly imagines a childhood minus all the religion and how that would have made him a more confident and stable person without losing half of his life trying to get de-programmed after years of religious brainwashing, Nathan is still praying for his older sister to return to God and His Kingdom. It’s obvious that there is a divide in her family as big as it is unsurmountable. Markie compares this divide to that in the American society - a divide between the religious fundamentalism and the worldview shaped by it on one hand and the people who wish to think for themselves and bring America forward, socially and politically, on the other hand, a divide between the exclusive and inclusive America.

The film was made shortly after George W. Bush secured his second term in office. At the same time, 11 states had voted to ban same-sex marriages. It looked at the time as if the fundamentalist America, the one that her parents represented, was taking over in this battle and Markie's tolerant and inclusive America was losing. Things have changed slightly since then but it’s definitely far too early to claim that the fundamentalist and intolerant America has been flushed down the drain. Despite Obama’s victory in the recent presidential elections, a majority of Californians voted to ban same-sex marriages. And that is definitely a bad omen when something like that happens in what is considered to be one of the most liberal states in the country. Markie’s journey of personal liberation may have been completed but it will be some time before the whole American nation liberates itself from its fundamentalist chains.

„Born Again” is an important testimony of one person who has had the inner courage and strength to find her true self and live with the consequences. It is also a well-made and heartfelt documentary about her lost family and the sacrifices she has been forced to endure. Stalin once said that the death of one person is a tragedy while the death of millions is statistics. In this case, the personal liberation of one person is a triumph which should inspire, if not millions, then certainly thousands.

Here you can watch the entire film if you happen to live in the US

Mein Freund aus Faro (To Faro, Germany, 2008)

2008-11-16T15:51:00.014+02:00

Director: Nana Neul.

Principal cast: Anjorka Strechel, Lucie Hollmann, Manuel Cortez, Florian Panzner.

Gender perception can play tricks not only on those perceiving but also those perceived. And in a world with deeply rooted gender roles and appearances, can you achieve your ultimate goal by pretending to the bitter end that you are something that you are not, too infatuated with the process and too confused to foresee the consequences? The new German coming-of-age drama „To Faro” does not attempt to be moralistic, nor does it victimise any of its characters – it simply shows a possible turn of events and offers a plausible (if not the only) way out.

Mel is a tomboyish girl in her early twenties who works in a catering factory wrapping up endless meals to be had by passengers on the airplanes she longingly observes taking off and landing in the nearby airport in her spare time. Her drab routines at work only liven up somewhat when she meets her new colleague – a Portuguese guy called Nuno with his non-German mannerisms and attitudes. Also at home, Mel’s life is dull and hardly bearable. Her brother Knut, whose pregnant girlfriend is about to move in with them into their father’s house, constantly teases her about not having a boyfriend and that by the looks of her she could be his brother. And the truth is – her appearance and manners suggest a lot more a young heterosexual male than a young heterosexual female. In fact, so much more that when the 14-year-old Jenny, whom she one night almost runs over on a badly lit road assumes that the driver is a young guy, it seems comic but still quite believable. Persuaded by Jenny and her equally underaged friend, Mel helps them get into a local night club where she quickly falls for the young girl and decides to play along by inventing a new identity for herself – Miguel from Faro in Portugal. Soon enough the love interest appears to be mutual but in the morning they part and there seems to be no need for any further deception.

Intent on gaining more respect and less scorn at home, Mel pays Nuno to play along as her boyfriend. The initially sceptical family quickly embrace her „love interest” and are more than willing to include him into their circle. At the same time Mel is unable to forget Jenny. She is in love with her but obviously clueless about how to proceed and what to do about it. And when they accidentally run into each other again, Mel simply can’t help throwing herself into the flames of her agonising love. Romance between the two girls becomes reality but how much reality is there really about it? Inevitably, her lies and deceptions lead to entanglements which hang over her like the sword of Damocles. It’s time for the ultimate revelation which will lead to the ultimate judgement.

„To Faro” is not the first German film to deal with mixed identities and the price there is to pay for leading a double life. Although the film’s promoters emphasise its kinship with „Boys Don’t Cry”, my immediate association is with Angelina Maccarone’s „Unveiled” (Fremde Haut). Both films are set in the German province, they both use airports as a metaphor for longing to escape one’s miserable existence and not the least, in both films women are forced to pretend to be men to achieve their goals. But while the Iranian refugee in „Unveiled” uses crossdressing to avoid being expelled to her home country where she is persecuted for her homosexuality, Mel’s deception is her own choice – it’s the only way that she deems possible to be intimate with her beloved. In both cases the truth cannot remain concealed forever but while the main character in „Unveiled” is put on a plane back to Iran, Mel can decide her own fate and move on with her life. Growing up surrounded by heteronormativity (which has befallen most of us), Mel never had a real chance to explore her sexuality. The ordeal of her first love has served as a bucket of cold water which prompted her to act. The acclaimed Danish writer Per Hultberg has once said that one must break up with one’s home in order to find one’s true self. In many cases this is a forced action. Nonetheless, a necessary one. A lot can be said about the ethics or rather the lack thereof when it comes to deception, especially in love matters. However, the sad reality is that especially in love matters critical faculties tend to fail even the sharpest minds, let alone confused youngsters with a sexuality diverging from what is broadly perceived as the norm. Only personal experience and courage to be what you really are will help you find your own path, not a blind adherence to someone else’s perception of normality.

„To Faro” is a rather slowly-paced drama with an unmistakable German flavour. Although the acting is a bit uneven at times and certain scenes can seem implausible, the film has a solid plot and can be recommended to all those concerned with the issues of coming to terms with one’s own sexuality. Despite the fact that the main protagonist of the film is in her early twenties, the issues that „To Faro” touches upon certainly aren’t restricted to that age category.

You can watch the film's trailer here (in German)

Rak haeng Siam (The Love Of Siam, Thailand, 2007)

2008-10-28T23:05:00.047+02:00

Director: Chukiat Sakveerakul.

Principal cast: Witwisit Hiranyawongkul, Mario Maurer, Sinjai Plengpanit, Kanya Rattapetch.

When Thailand is mentioned, first things that come to my mind are long, paradise-like beaches overcrowded with Western charter tourists and gay life pulsing around the clock in Bangkok with its world famous ladyboys and prostitution. Somehow, the word ’conservative’ doesn’t fit into the overall image of the place. But I guess the Thai society outside of the beaches and gay bars is a rather different story. In fact so different that when „The Love of Siam” was released in cinemas across the country the promotors did everything they could to conceal the fact that the focal point of this almost 3 hour long film was a gay teen romance. Basicly advertised as a straight teen romance flick (a very popular genre in Thailand, it seems), the film’s posters feature two girls and two boys, there are hardly any promotional photos on the film’s website showing the two main characters together and the film’s trailer clearly misleads viewers making them assume that this will be another one of those sugarsweet „boy meets girl” Asian productions. I can just imagine the unsuspecting „traditional family” movie-goers coughing their popcorn back up when realising what they have been „tricked” into watching, especially if they have brought their „innocent” prodigy with them. I’m a little surprised the director hasn’t gone into hiding as a result.

The plot of „The Love of Siam” centers around two boys and their families who live as neighbours in one of the suburbs of Bangkok. We meet them first time when they’re aged about 11 or 12. Mew lives with his ailing grandmother. He is a bit of a loner, picked on by others at school and not really having other friends than his late grandpa’s piano. One day, when Mew is attacked in the school’s toilets, his neighbour Tong comes to his rescue. Eventually, the two boys bond and become inseparable. In the meantime, Tong’s older sister Tang (yes, the choice of names isn’t very helpful for non-Thai audiences) goes missing on a trekking tour in the jungles around Chiangmai in the north of the country. Her disappearance without a trace leaves her bereaved family stunned. Especially her father seems to be overwhelmed with grief and tries to drown his sorrows in whiskey. Not being able to cope with the situation, Tong’s family moves away leaving Mew without his best friend.

We meet the two families again after what seems to have been five years. After Mew’s grandmother’s death he now lives with his aunt and is a lead singer in a boyband called August. He is also the composer of all the songs that the band performs. One day, when Tong (not knowing the identity of the lead singer) wants to buy their latest album from a records stall, the stall-keeper informs him that the album has been sold out but quickly points in the direction of the band itself since he has talked to them a moment earlier. Tong follows after the band and recognises to his big surprise his long-lost friend Mew in their midst. They exchange phone numbers, and soon Tong finds himself drawn to Mew in a way he has never felt with Donut, the girl he’s officially dating. At the same time, a Chinese girl named Ying whose family moved into Tong’s house after his had left, spends her free time practising „white magic” which she is learning from a book, hoping to make Mew fall in love with her, just like she is with him. Her somewhat unconventional tricks – flipping Mew’s shoes on his porch and stuffing his hair into her teddy bear – don’t really bring about the desired results. Instead, Mew finds himself emotionally involved with Tong and can now (surprise, surprise!) finally write the love song so needed for their band to reach new heights of popularity with the teen girl crowd. He performs the song at a garden party arranged by Tong’s delusional father who is celebrating the return of his lost daughter (in fact just a decoy planted by his desperate wife) and the two end up kissing in the garden after the guests are gone. This is witnessed by Tong’s mother who is all but happy (’a hard drinking husband, a missing daughter and now a gay son’). She tells Mew to end their relationship behind Tong’s back. Mew and Tong are thrown apart but Mew’s love song performed at Siam Square (hence the name of the film) brings them back together. Or does it? The ending is in fact surprisingly ambigious and begs for a sequel. Well, maybe that was the intention.

„The Love of Siam” could have been set as a TV soap opera as it certainly has all the ingredients for it – several parallell drama subplots with rather weird twists on a par with anything „Santa Barbara” has had to offer. At the same time, the acting on the part of most actors, especially our pair in love, is surprisingly realistic, balanced and „non-soapy”. Another thing that separates this film from the mainstream Thai cinematography is the diversity of the society it portrays, even if it doesn’t seem so seen with Western eyes. Tong’s family are Catholics, and apparently the controversy of having a Catholic family as main characters in a Thai film meant for the masses has been almost as big as portraying a gay teen romance. But as for the gay aspect, the main shock is said to have been that the two boys at the heart of the story aren’t shown particularly effeminate. The Thai society can evidently live with those „poor creatures born with the wrong genitalia” (there are even special toilets for transsexuals across the country) but still finds it rather difficult to accept that a man can be gay without constantly having to wiggle his behind and squeak instead of speaking. Nor are the two boys in question forced into prostitution and dying of AIDS. Actually, they seem to be just like any other kid on the block and I guess that is the main point of controversy of this film. With this in mind, I believe that we can safely call this film groundbreaking in contemporary Thai cinematography. Here I have to add that when the film was recently shown on Thai TV the pivotal scene with the two boys kissing was omitted. It seems that the ground in question hasn't been broken with the Thai TV broadcasters yet.

As for concealing the true nature of the film in its marketing, the director himself has admitted that his objective was to reach a wider audience. It reminds me of my own experience at this year’s Kratkofil, a short film festival in Bosnia, when the festival’s organisers completely omitted any reference to gay and lesbian when they included my selection of gay and lesbian short films in their programme. Most of the people who had come to watch my selection had no idea that it was a queer one but only a few left. Had they announced it so that everybody would know beforehand, maybe no one would have come at all. Seen from that perspective the director of „The Love of Siam” might have been right in his tactics: by „tricking” the audiences he made them watch a different reality which in the end wasn’t that different from their own.

„The Love of Siam” is a sincere and rather convincingly made film about family ties and different kinds of love – Tong’s father’s self-destructive love for his lost daughter, his mother’s love for both him and her estranged husband and, of course, Mew’s and Tong’s first aspirations to find love for another human being outside of their families. While one kind of love is desired and even encouraged, another kind of love can be seen as dangerous and a threat to the other love. In a way, this films aspires to show that no love can be a threat to any other love and for that it deserves an immense credit. I can definitely recommend this film, especially if you don't find it all too tiresome to read subtitles for 3 hours. This aspect is certainly compensated by the charm and beauty of the two main leads.

Here is a video compilation of some of the romantic scenes from the film with Mew's love song presented as a karaoke sing-along both in Thai and English

Na sončni strani Alp (On The Sunny Side Of The Alps, Slovenia, 2007)

2008-10-20T18:51:00.014+03:00

Director: Janez Burger.

Principal cast: Ibrahim Nouhoum, Kany Michel Obenga, Samuel Camara.

"On The Sunny Side Of The Alps" is not directly an LGBT-related film. However, I believe it deserves to be mentioned here since it's about racism and xenophobia which are soulmates of homophobia. This short film is set in Slovenia and depicts what seems to be everyday lives of ordinary Slovenes. Nothing extraordinary except the entire cast is African.

Here is the director's statement:

""On The Sunny Side Of The Alps" used to be the slogan of a promotion campaign of the Slovene Tourist Board which wanted to present Slovenia in the best possible light - as a beautiful subalpine country, full of hospitable and friendly people. However, recent racist and xenophobic events present Slovenia in a far darker light. It is most concerning that racist and xenophobic rhetoric is being used also by political elites, but even more concerning is the fact that their populist tendencies find fertile ground which helps their political credit to grow. This film is a reaction to the increasingly bizzare situation in my country. A film about a typical Slovene family which would never find shape if finance officials knew that this is the first Slovene black-African film."

Indeed. Apparently, he made the Slovene film funders believe that he was about to make a film which could basicly be used for promotion of tourism to Slovenia, intending to cast a number of popular Slovene actors, but when he got the funding he simply hired black actors for all the roles in the script and the result is simply hilarious. I guess he won't be getting more money from the Slovene film funders, but something tells me he doesn't really care about that. To my knowledge, he's already got funding for his new full-length film in Ireland. Now it remains to be seen if the Irish Tourist Board will be equally upset with the outcome!

"On The Sunny Side Of The Alps" is a witty comedy with subtle humour and an unmistakable Alpine (or, should I say, subalpine?) touch. Still, you don't have to have visited the country to fully enjoy it. And since cinematography is a visual art form, the message won't be lost on most viewers either.

Here you can watch a fragment from the film

Queer Sarajevo Festival, a highly personal account

2008-10-01T16:26:00.025+03:00

Photo by Rašid Krupalija.

If you had come to Sarajevo last week you would have seen large billboards across the city in connection with the forthcoming municipal elections. Quite a few of them state in massive letters – Sarajevo na evropskom putu or Sarajevo on Road to Europe. Yeah, sure – what about a fast track? Municipal elections have rarely got anything to do with pan-European issues but in this case the billboards’ authors might just have struck the chord with what’s at stake in their city and country, unknowingly.

Queer Sarajevo Festival was opened on Wednesday, 24 September in the premises of the Academy of Fine Arts. The occasion was also used for the opening of several exhibitions – a photo exhibition by Irfan Redžović, a sculpture exhibition by Alma Selimović (both from Bosnia) and a number of queer art works from different parts of former Yugoslavia. The hall with the art exhibitions where the opening took place was bursting with people – the organisers clearly weren´t counting on so many people showing up. In fact, it was almost impossible to see the art works for all the people. At one point, a representative of the Dutch embassy, being one of the main funders of the festival, gave a speech in English concluding it with „Long live the Queers!” followed by a speech in Bosnian made by Boba, one of the local organisers from Organisation Q. The crowds cheered and the whole atmosphere was lively but rather relaxed – the weeks of hate speech from parts of the Bosnian media and most political parties seemed rather distant.

In the meantime, the opposing crowd outside was growing bigger – the daily Ramadan meal at 7 pm was over. As the opening was coming to a close, I and three Bosnian friends of mine decided to move further and went outside. The crowd didn’t look particularly friendly but on the other side, at least at that moment they weren’t shouting or chanting anything and looked relatively calm, no doubt largely due to the presence of the police in front of the building. When we decided to start walking, a guy standing next to me silently tried to block my passage and pushed me. I asked him what his problem was but he didn’t reply. We started walking and I noticed that a group of those people also started walking in the same direction. One of the two girls in our group decided that we´d better get into her car which was parked on the other side of the Academy, not far away, so we turned right and walked through a line of policemen who were standing outside. The other side was badly lit and deserted – no civilians, no police. I kept watching our backs but nobody seemed to follow us at that point. But that was only a moment of calm before the storm. As we had reached the parking lot, I suddenly saw with the back of my eye that a group of people were running at us and a second later we were attacked from behind. I tried to turn around to defend myself and get away from them but fell and found myself surrounded by what seemed to be four young guys who started kicking the living daylights out of me from all sides. Somehow, I managed to get back on my feet and get out of the circle, so I started running all I could without looking back. As I was running, I noticed I was basically blind on my left eye and my hands were covered in blood. I also couldn’t help noticing how badly lit and deserted the streets were at that point. Absolutely no police presence 50 meters from the Academy. I eventually reached a place where I felt I was safe and my friends collected me from there. Most of that night was spent in a local hospital where they kept sending me from one clinic to another and eventually stitched me up. At the emergency room we also saw some other victims of the attacks that night. Two guys who had left the venue in a taxi were followed for four kilometers, then brutally dragged out of the car, threatened with guns and then beaten with them.

Towards dawn we were all taken to a police station where we gave our statements. This process took an incredible amount of time and the police officers in charge found it important to ask questions like what the maiden name of my mother was. Eventually, I and a friend of mine were driven to my hotel room with some police escort and we could finally get some sleep.

On the following day I was taken back to the hospital for some further checks but otherwise stayed in my hotel room all day watching TV including an episode of JAG with one of the main characters hospitalised after he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan. It seemed somehow appropriate. In the evening I was visited by some of the organisers who told me that the Festival as a public event wouldn´t continue since the police claimed that they couldn´t provide any protection for the participants or the organisers but that they would try to stage some of the planned events in secret locations for specifically invited guests. I was supposed to take part in a panel debate after the screening of John Greyson’s Lilies together with the director himself on Friday and although in a poor physical condition I still wanted to go through with it.

The day after, on Friday, I had to go back to the clinic of „facial reconstruction”. The organisers suggested that I go to their office after that as they were planning to take me and the other guests of the festival to „the only safe restaurant” in town for a dinner later that day. What I couldn´t quite foresee was that I was to stay inside that office for about 24 hours. Plans kept changing as the phones never went silent around me. The organisers even used my phone at times (I had my own Bosnian pay as you go SIM card) as they weren´t sure if their phones weren’t bugged. „Bugged by the police?” – „Yes, you never know who they are really working for”. At one point some of the organisers left for the airport to collect an artist who was coming to the festival to stage a performance. A car had followed them. Boba, the girl who remained in the office with me, switched off the lights, I sat down on the floor – just in case. After a number of calls back and forth we learned that they were now safe – they drove back from the airport with a police escort which they finally managed to get. Although offered, I decided not to leave. If they followed after me, they would learn where I´m staying and that place was definitely not safe. Not knowing who was lurking outside and what those people could come up with during the night, I decided to seek protection from a different source. Being a Danish national, I phoned the emergency number of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. About twenty minutes later I got a phone call from the Danish embassy. It turned out to be the ambassador himself. After some negotiations the embassy managed to persuade the Bosnian police to dispatch a police car to the area which was to keep an eye on us all night long. I guess it did, I never saw the actual car but that night will probably go down in my personal history as the longest night I had ever experienced, full of sounds of stopping cars and slammed car doors. At some point toward the morning I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I knew I didn’t want to spend another night in that city. The organisers put me on a plane to Zagreb on Saturday afternoon after a rather remarkable drive through the city, first to my hotel room and then to the airport, which seemed rather surreal and, if anything, a bad reprise of some crap Hollywood film with Svetlana in the front seat trying to hide her face under a hood and me at the back seat constantly looking back. The day had come that I felt I had to be airlifted out of Sarajevo, just like those people in the early spring of 1992 as the Bosnian war was becoming a reality. The only difference being that there now wasn’t a war or any shelling or shooting and the other people at the airport didn’t seem to be in distress. This was pure terrorism and not many ordinary people in Sarajevo seemed to care. I left but the local organisers stayed and so did thousands of Bosnian queers, many of them too afraid to leave their houses after what had happened.

One of the parties contesting at the municipal elections in Sarajevo on 5 October, Stranka za BiH or Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina which is led by Haris Silajdžić, one of the three rotating presidents in that country, has the whole city plastered with another set of billboards – these ones read 100% Europe. It is also the same party that has been the most ferocious opponent of Queer Sarajevo Festival publicly. What can I say to this? They probably mean 100% Europe as of 1933 when Hitler was democratically elected as Germany´s chancellor. There is, of course, no connection between people governing Sarajevo and Bosnia, people like Haris Silajdžić, and Europe as of 2008. Whichever road to Europe these people believe they are travelling, it hasn´t existed for decades and at the moment it certainly resembles the Old Bridge in Mostar after it was blown up in 1993. I sincerely hope the events from last week will serve as an eye-opener to the larger public.

Queer Sarajevo Festival was opened on 24 September but it was never closed. All the performances, film screenings and other events never took place and are still waiting for their audience. An audience which is there and which will not disappear, no matter how much certain parts of the Bosnian society may wish them away. It is therefore up to the Bosnian public, but also the international community, to make sure that these events DO take place and a significant part of this EU candidate member state's population can feel free from both the state and private terrorism which characterises the country at the moment.

Here is some footage made by Croatian TV on the opening night

Behikvot Hahatiha Hahasera (The Quest for the Missing Piece, Israel, 2007)

2008-09-07T21:22:00.030+03:00

Director: Oded Lotan.

Producer: Claudia Levin.

Male circumcision as a concept was virtually unknown to me until my early twenties when I crossed some American guys' path in Europe and learned to my big surprise that a great deal of the planet’s male population had their willies snipped after they were born. The whole idea of having your most private organ mutilated for (as I was told then) hygienic reasons only incensed my imagination and produced horrific images of sharp scissors swaying at my manhood like a set of ruthless shark jaws. I’ve never been particularly squeamish but this concept just seemed too disconcerting. The premise of Oded Lotan’s documentary „The Quest for the Missing Piece” is exactly the opposite – when he moves to Germany he soon realises that most guys there have something he hardly knew existed, namely foreskins. He then decides to set out on a quest to find his missing piece – the foreskin which was taken away from him shortly after birth.

Oded Lotan is a Jewish gay man who lives in Israel with his German husband. The main reason why it is possible for a gay couple to live openly in Israel, especially in Tel-Aviv is that despite all, this is a secular, modern society and no beard-shaking ultra-Orthodox rabbies have the power to prevent secular Jews from living accoding to their sexuality or their beliefs. It is explained early on in the film that circumcision is an ancient ritual which is a commandment from God in Judaism, thus establishing a link between God and the circumcised (no hygienic reasons are given in any holy Jewish scripts, I must add). So why does an overwhelming majority of people in Israel who are not particularly religious still practice this old tradition? The answer is simple: everybody else does it, it’s a Jewish tradition – brit milah or the Convent of Judaism. If it isn’t done, your friends and relatives will be all over you accusing you of all possible sins, so it’s easier just to fit in, not to stand out. The film even shows a couple of immigrants from Russia in their mid-twenties serving in the Israeli army who’ve had enough of being ridiculed by their comrades in arms and decide to go through with the procedure just to fit in and be accepted as real Jews. That’s what one can call integration by circumcision!

There is, however, resistance to this ancient practice also among Jews in Israel. The documentary takes us to an almost secret meeting of a group of people who call themselves Parents for Intact Children which consists of parents who have refused to circumcise their children as well as pregnant women seeking advice on how to avoid the procedure for their soon-to-be- born ones. The arguments voiced here echo the statement made by the American Medical Association in 1999 – the procedure is medically unnecessary, it inflicts pain and is done without the child’s consent and therefore not recommended as long as it isn’t intended as therapeutic. But there is obviously such peer pressure in the Israeli society that these people still find that they have to hide away from the public eye in order to discuss these matters.

It is evident that circumcision in Jewish culture isn’t just a question of removing a piece of skin from your penis. Brit milah is a tribal ritual which puts you into the fold of the chosen people. It brandishes you, if I may say so, as a Jew. The psychologist who is interviewed by Oded Lotan only confirms it – you may remove all the external signs of Jewdom but you will never be able to restore your foreskin, you become a Jew for life. Since circumcision here is a question of identity, another question begs to be asked – when so much of your Jewish heritage and identity-bearing culture is so rigid and defies modern, secular logic, is it possible to be a gay Jew, i.e. to have both your Jewish and gay identities at the same time? Would Oded and his beloved circumcise their children if they ever were to have any? But our inquisitor only asks the questions and makes no attempt to answer them, thus leaving all doors open.

"The Quest for the Missing Piece" is a rather humorous, semi-animated documentary which touches upon subjects which aren’t in themselves perceived as particularly light-hearted. It deserves credit for attempting to create a debate both in Israel and among the Jewish diaspora worldwide about modernity versus tradition in the Jewish culture and putting question marks to the notion of only one proper Jewish identity. As the film isn’t very graphic in its depiction of the circumcision rituals, only the most squeamish of you should skip it – for the most part it's kosher!

Kratkofil, the 2nd International Short Film Festival in Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina

2008-06-24T20:16:00.049+03:00

The International Short Film Festival Kratkofil is a very young addition to the festival circuit in Europe. It was held only for the second time this year but the organisers already claim it is the second largest of its kind in the Balkans. Well, they might be right. However, the most important thing is that the people behind it are trying to put Banja Luka on the map for other reasons than the ones the city became (in)famous for just a little over a decade ago. And that is highly commendable in itself.

The festival took place between 11 and 15 June and the competition programme consisted of 55 films from all over the world. Apart from that the festival offered a number of different programmes with various themes including my own selection of gay and lesbian shorts.

The festival had its own hub on the premises of the local Youth Centre (Omladeni Centar) which had an official reception with a hospitality team, a press centre and workshop space.

Inside the centre there was also a lounge area which basically worked as a meeting point. These cushion-like chairs were in fact made of tyres.

An original solution, I guess, although not always too comfortable to sit on. From the left: Thomas Pors, a maker of animated films from Denmark, Alejandro Andrade Pease, a Mexican/Spanish documentalist and Alistair Paxman, a Scottish musician from New York.

My programme was scheduled for Friday, 13 June. Since I'm not a superstitious person I didn't object to that and nothing unfortunate happened either! Here I'm presenting my programme in a cinema called Kozara.

There was no mentioning anywhere of my programme actually being a gay and lesbian one. It was simply titled Over The Rainbow and marked with a discreet Q by the organisers, so quite a few people in the audience had no idea what they had come to see. My presentation made some people giggle nervously and some of them left during the screening. On the other hand, I have the suspicion that not many people would have shown up at all, had it been promoted as a gay and lesbian programme. Not that there aren't enough queer people in Banja Luka but for all the same reasons why I have difficulties attracting large audiences during my very own LGBT Film Days in Riga. So, in a way I guess I ended up forcing these people to deal with homosexuality and that may be seen as a reward in itself.

The opening and closing ceremonies were held on the roof of an old trade centre called Boska which was apparently seen as very classy when it was opened back in the 1970's. I must admit that that the idea was not bad at all, especially seen as neither of the two cinemas used for screenings during the festival could have accommodated all the people who wanted to attend the ceremonies in question. The late night competition screenings each day were supposed to take place on the roof too. However, it rained most nights, so "the open air experience" frequently had to be moved to the nearby cinema Palas.
On the right - Darija Buzaković, the festival's director giving a speech during the opening ceremony. Behind her - some of Kratkofil's volunteers.

Heinz Hermanns, the manager of Interfilm in Berlin, one of the largest short film festivals in the world, headed Kratkofil's jury.

The Audience Award as well as The Best Fiction Film Award went to the Swiss-German co-production "Auf der Strecke" ("On The Line"). Thomas Bachmann, the film's editing director was there to collect both prizes.

The Grand Prix of the festival went to "Brædrabylta" ("Wrestling"), an Icelandic film by Grímur Hákonarson (who wasn't himself present at the festival) which is a tale of two gay wrestlers living in rural Iceland who grapple with their love for one another. An interesting choice, especially seen as it was the only gay-themed film in the competition. Without diminishing the qualities of the film (although I must admit that this short has never appealed to me personally), I find it somewhat intriguing that the jury's choice fell on this mini version of "Brokeback Mountain". But be it as it may, it can also be considered a small victory for gay equality in a society that can hardly be described as other than rampantly macho and homophobic.

All things come to an end - last drinks on the roof of Boska. From the left - Alistair Paxman from Scotland/NYC, Kevin Kirchenbauer from Berlin, Thomas Pors from Denmark and Mattias Wright from Munich.

All photos with the exception of the last two by Māra Pētersone.

And here is the festival's official video

Kiril Džajkovski came to town and performed at the old fortress during the festival together with Duke Bijadzijev and TK Wonder from New York. Here is my own recording of one of the songs

LGBT Film Days Riga (Latvia)

2008-05-28T17:23:00.009+03:00

Between 8 and 11 May the film gallery K-Suns hosted the third annual LGBT Film Days in Riga. This event is being organised by me personally in co-operation with a few embassies and foreign cultural representations. Needless to say, an absolute majority of Latvian institutions do not wish to have anything to do with this festival. But hey, I am an optimist - the only way is up!

A total of 26 films was shown - 7 full length feature films, 3 documentaries and 16 short films divided into two programmes - You & Me and Colourful World. To my surprise, the biggest audience magnet turned out to be a German documentary about Indian hijras - Between the Lines/India's Third Gender. Well, maybe I should review it sometime soon then!

This year's poster (as well as the one last year) was designed by Paul Sixta, a Dutch multimedia artist and filmmaker. And this is what it looks like

The film days were opened with "Keillers Park", a Swedish thriller which I reviewed here some time ago. The film's director, Susanna Edwards came to Riga in this connection and presented it to the audience. And this is what she looks like

And here both of us are standing in front of the cinema where all the films were screened

Both photos by Māra Pētersone.

Latter Days (USA, 2003)

2008-03-31T22:51:00.020+03:00

Director: C. Jay Cox.

Principal cast: Steve Sandvoss, Wes Ramsey, Reb. Johnson, Jacqueline Bisset.

Homosexuality and religion have always been a troubled tandem, to say the least. While in the past homophobia used to be an undisputed and integral part of the institutionalised religion or rather its officially preached dogma, today the issue seems to be splitting entire churches right in the middle. But then again - there are churches openly debating the issue and there are those trying to silence it to death. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons, certainly doesn't belong to the former group. But can it stay in the latter category forever?

Elder Davis (Aaron to those few who know him personally) is sent from his native Idaho to Los Angeles to spread the Mormon faith together with three other guys. They move into a flat in a residential area from where they are to launch their soul-saving operation. Things become a little awkward when they realise that their closest neighbour is Christian (an interesting choice of name, I might add), an openly gay and flashy party queen who is in no way intimidated by his new residential entourage. He soon lays his eyes on the pretty boy Aaron and even makes a bet at work (surprise, surprise – he works in a trendy downtown restaurant owned by a former Hollywood actress) that before long he’ll get him into bed. Aaron, who is intrigued by this apparently completely uninhibited and oversexed apparition that is Christian and evidently not so uninterested himself, falls into a trap masterminded by the latter so that Christian almost succeeds in his endeavour. But only almost, because Aaron is quick enough to realise that he is about to become just another one of Christian’s uncountable conquests. And that is definitely not what he wants, especially because he is in fact still a virgin. In disappointment, he calls him “a walking, talking marshmellow Peep” and walks away. Under normal circumstances Christian would probably just shrug it off but he doesn’t seem to be able to get Aaron out of his head and becomes determined to prove that he is more than he appears to be on the outside by volunteering for an early morning home delivery service for a housebound AIDS patient. Eventually, his determination seems to pay off with regard to Aaron but as the two of them are about to have an intimate moment, Aaron’s missionary mates happen to walk in on them.

In most cases, being found out this way causes embarrassment and a great deal of initial panic, especially if you weren’t planning on leaving the closet as yet. However, if you happen to be a Mormon missionary, this turn of events has dire consequences. Aaron is immediately sent home and subsequently excommunicated by his own hard-faced and unforgiving father while his mother can’t even look him into the eyes. Homosexuality is one of the worst sins you can be accused of in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and if you don’t seem to be set on “praying the gay away”, you actually may end up in a clinic where they give your penis an electric shock treatment while they force you to watch gay porn and put you in a bathtub filled with ice until you literally turn light blue. As outrageous as it is, this treatment is in fact still practised in certain clinics in the US to turn people, especially youngsters, straight. Alas, this gruesome fate also befalls our Aaron. And there is only one thing that helps him survive the rejection of his family and the torture in the clinic – the love that he and Christian share.

According to many gay people who come from a Mormon background, the portrayal of the Mormons and their ways in this film is convincing and realistic. As I lack firsthand experience myself, I can only shudder at the thought that there seem to be so many religions in this world which in the name of their dogmatic teachings are ready to maim people physically and mentally because they don’t seem to fit these very same dogmatic teachings. Somehow, the words “Jesus loves you” cannot but sound utterly and ultimately meaningless and devoid of any relevance in this context. Unfortunately, the brainwashing that these religions do still keeps many a tortured soul trapped in a limbo that is hell on earth. And I’m not so sure they will have a reward for their pain in an afterlife.

“Latter Days” is not a masterpiece of cinematography. In fact, it is at times fairly cheesy and badly acted, especially when it comes to the use of religious symbolisms throughout the film which have made my toes cringe. But it is a heartfelt and convincing attempt to liberate many of these trapped souls that are still out there trying to undo the harm done to them by the “loving and caring” religions. And as such it is priceless.

And here you can watch the film's trailer:

Proteus (Canada, 2003)

2008-02-29T20:31:00.059+02:00

Director: John Greyson.

Principal cast: Rouxnet Brown, Shaun Smyth, Neil Sandilands, Kristen Thomson.

John Greyson's ability to create aesthetically pleasing films in somewhat unconventional ways has always been accompanied by his unquenchable desire to speak up against the injustices of this world. While the issues of AIDS and human rights for homosexuals comprise the main bulk of his work, "Proteus" addresses an even broader range of issues including colonialism and racism which are, still, closely related to homophobia and fight for the universal right to love whoever it may be that you fall in love with, regardless of the gender and colour of the object of your affection.

The film is based on a true story about the fate of Rijkhart Jacobsz, a Dutch sailor and Claas Blank, a black native of South Africa who had assumed a Dutch name. Their story was dug up in the archives related to the infamous Robben Island prison just off shore from Cape Town by Jack Lewis, the script’s co-writer and a South African human rights activist who was adamant that it deserved the attention of a broader audience. The records found in the archives were from 1735 and when carefully studied, they suggested that the pair had been together for at least ten years prior to being convicted of sodomy at the height of the “sodomy panic” which had gripped the Netherlands at that time. In 1730, 70 people were executed in Amsterdam alone for “crimes against nature and mankind” which meant nothing other than that they were gay men, either caught in the act or named by others under torture. South Africa being in the hands of the Dutch settlers protected by the colonial Dutch army apparently succumbed to the same wave of witchhunting. What caught the attention of Jack Lewis was that the record of their trial didn’t contain any references to what they both were and what it was that they had together. It was indeed love that didn’t dare speak its name and Jack Lewis decided that it was about time for it to speak. It took about 7 years of raising funds for the project and carrying it out in collaboration with John Greyson, and the result was a poetic, yet angry film about love versus prejudice and intolerance, humanity versus barbarity.

It isn’t random that the events take place on Robben Island, for it was also there that Nelson Mandela was sent to serve his life sentence in 1964. The film’s authors took a creative approach to drawing parallells between the two eras incorporating elements of the 20th century into what is essentially an 18th century drama. The court’s clerks look like they are taken directly out of the 60’s with their beehive perms and heavily framed glasses. The main sadist among the prison guards is wearing a contemporary uniform. And the bloodthirsty Boer settlers wearing 18th century outfits go chasing after one of our protagonists in a jeep. The mixture of period elements is, of course, fully intentional. And it only emphasises the continued relevance of the film’s message today. In 2008, homosexuality is still punishable by death in Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. And one can only speculate whether courts in these countries still follow the Dutch 18th century practice of sending the bill for the executions on to the families of the executed.

The story begins to unfold when Claas Blank is brought before the court after being captured by a local Boer settler and accused of stealing his cattle. Due to lack of evidence he is acquitted of these charges, but is still sentenced to 10 years of hard labour on Robben Island for simply opposing a white settler. On the island, he encounters Rijkhart Jakobz who has ended up in prison after having been caught copulating with another man. Eventually, the two are drawn to each other and start a relationship which they must protect from the watchful eyes of their fellow inmates at all costs. However, their sexual encounters are soon discovered by Virgil Niven, a Scottish botanist who has come to South Africa to study and give names to the different species of Protea, a genus of flowering plants specific to the Cape region first discovered by European botanists in the 17th century. Commissioned by the legendary Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, he enlists the help of Claas Blank who provides him with Bushman names for the plants and tells him about the local beliefs connected to these plants, otherwise known as sugarbushes. Virgil Niven, who has a wife and a child in Amsterdam, is in fact just another example of a gay man doing what is required of him in front of the society while struggling with his true sexuality. He, too, harbours feelings for Claas Blank but is unable to do anything about it, so he remains just an observer, albeit an active one, of both his own inevitable demise and that of our imprisoned pair.

It was purely coincidental that the former South African Prime Minister and architect of apartheid, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd suggested that protea be included in the new design of the South African flag, thus almost becoming the country’s national symbol the same year as Nelson Mandela was sentenced to a life in prison. However, it wasn’t random that Virgil Niven was studying these beautiful flowers and giving them names in the film. He named one of the species Protea Blankia, thus paying a tribute to his secret infactuation with Claas Blank who in return said the words which were very central to the film’s message – “I’m proud to be a name”. In all essence, he was saying - I’m proud to have a name, I’m proud to have an identity. It was a clear recognition of him as a human being and his dignity as a human being. Earlier in the film, Virgil explained to Claas not only the new system of nomenclature which Carl Linnaeus had introduced in botanics but also the distinguished scientist's racial classification which consisted of five categories - Africanus, Americanus, Asiaticus, Europeanus and Monstrosus. The “monstrous” humans included not only mythological creatures like the dwarf of the Alps and the Patagonian giant but also the "monorchid" Hottentots, the African people of whom Claas was one himself. Hottentots (now known as Khoikhoi) were basically considered just a more developed form of apes, and Virgil was even quick to point out that they had a Hottentot’s skeleton with horns on display at the Museum of Natural History in Amsterdam. Shockingly, this worldview has still survived among some fundamentalist Christians in South Africa and beyond. In all essence, their point is that since the only humans on Noah’s Arc were white, all the black people must have derived from the apes!

This kind of marginalisation and dehumanisation is also known all too well in connection with homophobia which is still fairly rampant across this planet. “Proteus”, although poetic in tone, is full of outrage and a powerful reminder to all of us why we have to continue our fight for the human rights of all people and that we still have a long way to go before we all “have a name”. Needless to say, Linnaeus eventually changed all the names for the different species of protea invented by Virgil Niven. In a manner of speech, this film restores the name of Protea Blankia to its rightful owner.

Here you can watch the film's trailer (in German)

Yossi & Jagger (Israel, 2002)

2008-01-27T21:11:00.005+02:00

Director: Eytan Fox.

Pricipal cast: Ohad Knoller, Yehuda Levi, Assi Cohen, Aya Steinovitz.

Homosexuality is an explosive subject in most armies around the world. In some cases, just as explosive as the conflicts many of them are involved in. Different armies don’t necessarily share the same level of discussions when it comes to this topic – while different sections of the British army have quarrels regarding their possible participation in this or that Pride parade, the US army still (at least, officially) finds it a valid reason for an immediate discharge. However, the question of gay men in the military is by no means anything new. Nor has it always been a taboo. In ancient Greece, there even existed an army unit which went under the name of the Sacred Band of Thebes which exclusively consisted of homosexual couples. It was considered an elite force and the reasoning behind its formation was that lovers would fight more fiercely at each other’s sides. But while homosexuality in ancient Greece was nothing that people in general frowned upon, the attitudes changed, arguably, with the advent of Christianity when not just homosexuality but any sexuality at all was suddenly considered a sign of impurity of soul and body.

The plot of „Yossi & Jagger” revolves around an Israeli army unit on the border with Lebanon. Yossi, the platoon commander is a serious looking man in his late 20’s, demanding of his subordinates, but reasonable. One of these subordinates, Lior, is very much the opposite of his commanding officer – cheerful, somewhat childish and with the looks and behaviour of a rock star, hence the nickname „Jagger”. An ordinary army unit with the same palette of professional soldiers and recruits from all walks of life as in other such units. Nothing extraordinary on the surface. Only Yossi and Lior have a secret that they closely guard – they are lovers. While Yossi finds it unimaginable to change the way things are with Lior, the latter is growing tired of the secrecy in which their love is kept. Lior is looking forward to leaving the army and taking Yossi with him – to a life where they no longer will have to hide their relationship, where they can book a hotel room in Eilat with a kingsize bed rather than joining two single ones. But while Lior is adamant that Yossi must quit the army and embrace the freedom of civilian life, the latter isn’t quite prepared to leave his whole previous life behind him. Things get even more complicated when Yaeli, a young female soldier (yes, also women serve in the Israeli army) decides to conquer Lior at any cost. This doesn’t go down well with another soldier, Ophir, who’s been in love with Yaeli all along. Rather than realising that Lior has no interest in Yaeli’s advances, he sees in him a competitor. Yaeli also tells Yossi of her intentions seeking his advice since she sees him as Lior’s close friend. Neither of them can tell the truth – the Israeli army isn’t very different from other armies, also here homophobia is an institutionalised part of the daily routine. But fate has another solution in store for all the parties involved. A colonel arrives, and after indulging in pleasures of the flesh with another female soldier, he announces that the unit is to set up an ambush later that night. Needless to say, things don’t go exactly according to plan.

Eytan Fox’ first long feature film „Yossi & Jagger” is in many ways a continuation of the theme which he started exploring in his debut short film „After” (aka „Time Off”) which came out in 1990. Although, the ban on homosexuals in the Israeli army was lifted already in the mid-eighties, it still must have been a controversial choice for a young filmmaker to challenge the issue of masculinity (read: men’s sexuality) in the army in a country where the military plays such a vital role in its existence. The short film received a Jury Award at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools, but would probably not resurface later was not for the international success of „Yossi & Jagger” which convincingly put Eytan Fox not only on the world map of the gay-themed cinematography but also did a great job presenting Israel in a completely different light – can Israel be such a monstrous place as some claim if you can get away with making a film about a gay love affair in the army and then proudly show it around the world? Wouldn’t that just make them look weak and ridiculous in the eyes of their enemies? That may be so – we all know what the mainstream Arab world has to say on homosexual relationships – but I will claim that one’s strength is only real if it can withstand any attempts of being ridiculed. And it looks to me that Israel has passed the test.

However, another question arises in this connection. Were the ancient Greeks correct in their assumption that homosexual couples fighting side by side would make fiercer warriors or is there any substance to the claims that homosexual relationships in the army would demoralise the soldiers’ readiness for combat? Actually, this debate reminds me of another one – that from the world of sports. Every now and then it emerges in the news that a football coach has banned his players from having sex the night before an important game, if not for a whole week prior to the event. While I for one have the feeling that such practice would rather make the players more frustrated than single-minded in their footballing efforts, I honestly believe that when it comes to gay men in the army, the whole question is simply discussed under false premises. All armies are comprised of individuals whose attitude towards service and whose performance are determined by their professionalism and motivation. This applies to all, regardless of their sexuality. To believe that gay men can’t be „real” soldiers and that their sexuality would jeopardise an army’s performance is to say that gay men can’t be professional. And this doesn’t even deserve a comment.

Here is a musical tribute to the film by the popular Israeli singer Ivri Lider (in English)

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, Philippines, 2005)

2008-01-13T18:06:00.002+02:00

Director: Auraeus Solito.

Principal cast: Nathan Lopez, J.R. Valentin, Soliman Cruz, Ping Medina.

Preadolescent sexuality, especially if it veers from the mainstream, is most often surrounded by a lot of hysteria. People who otherwise come across as balanced and rational suddenly seem to lose all their critical faculties. Any interest in this topic will more likely than not lead to, at least, a few eyebrows raised in suspicion – why this “unhealthy” interest? It’s one of those few taboo questions which have been left standing barely touched in our otherwise fairly open-minded age. However, the topic in question is the background of “The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros”, a neorealist Filipino film which has now been a successful part of the international film festival circuit for the past couple of years. Several critics have pointed out that had the film’s main protagonist been a 12 year old girl, this film would probably not have made it outside of the Philippines. They might be right. But it’s the fact that it’s this aspect of the film that obviously makes it “interesting” internationally that is poignant in itself. Preadolescent queerness as just a matter of fact seems to be a pretty big deal in most societies across the globe.

Maximo, a 12 year old boy, lives in the slums of Manila with his father and two older brothers who earn their living by selling stolen mobile phones and other easily disposable consumer goods. The opening scenes of the film, set against the popular and recently deceased Filipino singer Yoyoy Villame’s song “My country, the Philippines”, introduce us to these slums in an almost documentary style - decaying buildings, piles of rubbish, dirty sewages. In the midst of all the misery a hand picks up a beautiful flower. It turns out to be Maximo’s hand and the flower immediately becomes an ad hoc ornament on his head. Swaying his hips and generally balancing his fragile body in a fashion which would make a few professional models rethink their next catwalk moves, he graciously parades through the narrow alleys and backyards of Manila’s underprivileged inhabitants. His dressing style and body language aren’t the only things that set him apart from his surroundings in these slums or anywhere else for that matter – his interests and home chores aren’t very typical for a 12 year old boy. At home, he does all the cooking, sewing and cleaning for the whole family while his free time is spent in the company of his like-minded peers organising pretend Miss Universe beauty pagents (all in drag) and watching romantic films on DVD. Since his family can put him to a better use at home, he has now stopped attending the school. This doesn’t bother Maximo much though. He seems to be enjoying his life and while realising that he is different from most of his peers, he seems to be fully accepted by his family and surroundings – nobody bats an eyelid at his rampant queerness, let alone tries to do anything about it. His family adores him and his neighbours seem all to be on friendly terms with him. One day, however, he is assaulted by a local youth gang whose only objective seems to be “to have some fun” at his expense. A rookie cop, Victor, comes to his rescue and takes him home. Life will never be the same thereafter.

Maximo falls head over heels in love with this new officer of the law which presents a real problem for his family. If there is something they don’t need in their lives, it’s to be exposed to a policeman who doesn’t seem to go with the flow at the otherwise fairly corrupt local precinct. To make things even worse, one of Maximo’s brothers commits a murder while attempting a robbery, and with the arrival of a new police chief, who has a few scores to settle with Maximo’s father, things get completely out of hand. In the midst of all this drama, there is Maximo and his first taste of a romantic involvement. He is effectively split between loyalty to his family and his feelings for Victor. Unfortunately, there are no fairy-tale endings in the brutal world of Manila’s slums - only premature adulthood. Still, Maximo hasn’t blossomed fully yet. His rude awakening to the cruelties of the world surrounding him hasn’t killed the scent of the flower he has put on his head.

“The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros” is not just a film about a queer kid in the hood and his gutshaker of a first love. It is also a depiction of life in the slums. Despite the fact that Maximo’s family can’t be described as law-obeying citizens of the local community, their portrayal is rather nuanced in that they are shown as both loving and caring – there is nothing monstrous about them at all. If anything, you can only pity them and their choice of lifestyle. One gets the feeling that it hardly was their first choice. The police eventually crack down on this family with all its might, but somehow you don’t feel that justice has been served, rather on the contrary. Maximo’s initial purity of heart could all but survive this “justice”, but the film’s authors don’t want us to believe it’s gone either. There must always be a light at the end of the tunnel and we also get to see a glimpse of that.

Maximo’s queerness at 12 is what sets this film apart from other similar neorealist depictions of the life of the underprivileged in a third world country. At the same time, nowhere in the course of the film is it made the focal point of the story. This is simply the way things are. Period. That in itself is a refreshing aspect of this film. Maximo doesn’t get killed or maimed. If anything, he is loved and protected. He falls in love with Victor – the problem isn’t that he falls in love with a man, it’s that the man in question is a cop. Even Victor himself seems to accept the fact that the kid has a crash on him. He only distances himself from Maximo when he is forced to cross swords with his family. And despite all that happens he seeks to reestablish their previous friendship afterwards. There is no doubt that Maximo’s obsession with Victor is homoerotic, but it is portrayed almost in religious terms – both when they both pray on their knees in church and when Maximo washes blood off Victor’s wounded body. We are shown the purity of the first love. And also its intensity. The fact that it’s homosexual is in all essence just a piece of background information in this film. And that’s the way it should be in an ideal world.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

A special tribute to the recently deceased Filipino singer Yoyoy Villame. Here you can listen to his song "My country, the Philippines" which is part of the film's soundtrack.

Sonja (Germany, 2006)

2007-12-15T21:24:00.001+02:00

Director: Kirsi M. Liimatainen.

Principal cast: Sabrina Kruschwitz, Julia Kaufmann, Nadja Engel, Christian Kirste.

Growing up is never easy, especially if you feel alienated from most of your peers. For some people friendships from their childhood and/or adolescence will continue unhindered also in their adult lives while for others it may never work out that way. Puberty brings about a few changes – in one’s perception of what’s cool and what’s not, what matters and what doesn’t, but especially it changes one’s perception of the surrounding people. Slowly but steadily they become sexual beings and one’s own sexual awakening inevitably leads to a reassessment of one’s hitherto so relatively uncomplicated friendships. „Alpha” males start having fights over girls and cheerleader types have their own quarrels over guys. This is perceived by most societies as the „normal” adolescent behaviour and it is also expected that you start to take an active interest in the opposite sex when you reach a certain age. But what do you do when you fall in love with someone of your own sex on top of having your general teenage confusion about everything else? What do you do when the person you are madly in love with has been your best friend since the early grades in school? Kirsi Liimatainen’s first long feature film „Sonja” tries to deal with the complexity of not just leaving the childhood world behind and entering adult life but also a teenager’s growing realisation of not having the „mainstream” sexuality in a world full of patterns to be followed and expectations to live up to.

Sonja, our 16 year-old protagonist, lives with her divorced mother in one of those parts of Berlin which many Germans call „Trabantenstädte” – endless grey blocks of flats built by the former government of „workers and peasants”. The blocks look dreary and so do the people living in them. Ordinary grey people in ordinary grey blocks with ordinary grey (more in mood than in colour, though) GDR-era wallpaper. The local lads seem to be preoccupied with cars and dating girls while the local girls mostly seem to be reading magazines about finding a boyfriend and evaluating the options at hand. Sonja is no exception as such. She hangs out with the other girls and even has an „official” boyfriend, Anton. Nor is there anything strange or rebellious about her clothes or hairstyle. Just an ordinary girl who doesn’t stand out in any particular way. But there is something wrong. She doesn’t understand what it is and why, but nothing feels right. She much prefers the company of her best friend Julia and finds her having to spend time with Anton suffocating. She isn’t very interested in the magazines’ tips. And she doesn’t find it all that exciting to sneak into guys’ rooms after curfew at a local sports camp. She constantly quarrels with her mother and hardly ever replies when other people approach her (which isn’t that uncharacteristic for a moody teenager, of course) but then she blossoms up when she is in Julia’s company. All of Sonja’s body language indicates that she is drawn to her and that she sees in Julia a lot more than one would in just a friend. Girls being traditionally allowed a greater intimacy with each other in Western culture won’t encounter many scornful looks or ugly remarks walking hand in hand publicly or having slumber parties. One can say that Sonja takes advantage of that in a way because Julia doesn’t find it strange that her best female friend sleeps in the same bed as she at the sports camp while drawing imaginary circles on her naked back, calls her the most beautiful girl in the world in the shower and is generally very straightforward and consequent in her flirting with Julia. One night she even reads love poetry to her. And although Julia is fairly responsive to Sonja’s attention, there is always this invisible line which Sonja doesn’t dare to cross. At the same time, Julia constantly flirts with guys and even occasionally snogs them in front of Sonja who, unsurprisingly, feels very jealous but is unable to do anything about that. This, naturally, only adds to her frustration and confusion.

At one point, Sonja is sent to the Baltic Sea coast to visit her father. She is supposed to go there together with Julia, but plans suddenly change. Julia has just lost her virginity and has no interest in deserting her new-found boyfriend. Sonja will have to face her father’s family alone. Before leaving, she had split up with Anton. All they had ever tried was kissing and now that Julia has taken the step from being a girl to becoming a woman (at least, in the traditional sense), she feels that she has been left behind in more than one way. She is also very confused about her feelings for Julia and how „appropriate” they are. Maybe her emotions will change if she gives herself to a man? She makes an awkward attempt at „awakening” heterosexuality inside her by letting herself be seduced by a neighbour. Inevitably, this experience only confirms what she hasn’t dared to acknowledge until now – that she is in love with Julia and that she is lesbian.

„Sonja” is based on Kirsi Liimatainen’s own experiences growing up in her native Finland and her first love, unreciprocated like Sonja’s. She also grew up surrounded by dreary housing and fairly ordinary people, where „a man is a man and a woman is a woman” as Sonja’s father postulates at one point at the dinner table. It can be very difficult (if not to say, rather dangerous for one’s health) to come out as a gay man or a lesbian woman in such an environment, but the fact is that one can more often than not leave this environment and seek a broader-minded community elsewhere. One’s coming-out process towards the outside world is very important, but what’s even more important is being able to come out to oneself. The road that leads to the understanding and subsequently acceptance of one’s own sexuality is not a motorway, it’s rather like a narrow path in a thick forest where you have to fight your way through the unhospitable bushes and intimidating branches hanging low from the cold and unforgiving trees. And the unfortunate truth is that for the most part you have to walk that path on your own. Sonja’s feelings of not fitting in and being alone with her confusion are far from being unique in any way. They say that road to hell is built on best intentions – the intentions of one's parents, friends and the society one lives in. And their intentions are usually "to straighten you out" which will only make your path through that forest even harder to walk. Alas, this still applies to most parents, „friends” and societies on this planet. At least, that seems to be the case.

„Sonja” is a warm film about a cold world. It is also a rather slow and thoughtful film. A great part of the dialogue is in fact body language which shouldn’t really surprise anyone since the director is Finnish and the settings are German. The acting is very convincing and realistic, although I believe that for the most part it comes from the fact that the actors don’t really have „to act”. Portraying an „ordinary” German girl shouldn’t be very difficult for somebody who herself can be described as an „ordinary” German girl. And the same goes for the other characters in the film. In fact, they seem so ordinary that it feels like you’ve met them yourself sometime just passing through those dreary blocks of flats in East Berlin or anywhere else in Europe. In this respect, it reminds me of another German film, „Nachbarinnen” („Neighbours”). The beauty of them both lies not in grand settings or a riveting drama, but the simplicity of the complicated. Enough said.

Here you can watch the film's trailer from Picture This!

Go Go G-Boys! (Taiwan, 2006)

2007-11-28T00:30:00.003+02:00

Director: Jong-Jong Yu.

Principal cast: Tae Sattawat, Yu Fa Yang, Tang Jan Gang.

Asian films are generally difficult for me to review since I’m not very familiar with Asian culture. In this case I’m also slightly puzzled. Had this film been made in the West, I probably wouldn’t even review it as I would just file it under „Crap”. However, this film seems to be very popular among gay youngsters in Asia and I can also definitely see why. To begin with, it’s a comedy. If you’re Asian and want to see anything gay-related which is also produced in Asia, in most cases you’ll have to settle for a drama. And Asian dramas are not a laughing matter, although in some cases you would think they were. Secondly, this film openly displays very camp and often barely dressed twinks who occasionally sing, dance or simply parade around in swimming trunks. I don’t think any of the Asian countries have produced many „eye candy” films targeting the male gay audience. And for that alone „Go Go G-Boys!” must be given some credit. I find it very encouraging for the whole region that such films are produced at all. I must also admit that this film gives a rare insight (if only roughly) into the Taiwanese gay subculture of today. And that’s always worth something.

The plot (if we can call it that) evolves around a gay beauty contest called simply G-Boy (yes, in English) and its contestants (whom even the blindest people wouldn’t confuse with straight blokes). While most of them are gay, two join for other reasons. A-Hong’s life is in jeopardy because his girlfriend has worked up a significant debt with the local mob which they strangely enough demand from him, so he joins hoping to win the prize – 10 million Taiwanese dollars (roughly 200,000 EUR). His best mate A-Shin (who is gay) camps him up and also joins the competition. Needless to say, A-Shin has been madly in love with A-Hong since their childhood together and is willing to do anything to help his friend. The other „fake” is Jay, an undercover cop whose worldview seems to have been inspired mostly by action films and anime cartoons and who happens to look very much like the other twinks who’ve joined the competition. Call it a coincidence! Jay volunteers after anonymous death threats are sent to the contest hoping to mimick some of his favourite action heros. However, most of the action in this film is reserved for the relationship between A-Shin and A-Hong who eventually discover their true love – each other. We don’t even get to know who wins the contest in the end. I guess the point is that true love is the winner.

„Go Go G-Boys!” must be following in the footsteps of some sort of Chinese slapstick comedy genre. It is filled with situation comedy elements which are funny enough if you completely disregard the acting (or rather the lack thereof) and if you try to imagine what it must be like being gay in Taiwan (although it must be a lot better than in mainland China, it seems). For example, in one scene the father of one of the contestants arrives from the country with two chickens, which is obviously a great embarrassment to his son, and eventually finds him in bed with another guy. Earlier in the film he was trying to convince his son to start thinking about marriage, now he ends up teaching this other guy (whom he’s no doubt already seeing as his soon-to-be inlaw) how to make a stew with chicken legs. Funny enough, if you think about it!

This film seems to be targeting an audience whom Joey from „Boy Culture” (see my previous review) would call „stage 1 fags” and who according to him „are not slutty hoping to find this perfect boyfriend who’s also not slutty” for about a year after they come out. And although there isn’t anything wrong with that as such, this film has a total soap opera ending to it which I’m not sure even the most romantically inclined among us would find more plausible than most story lines from „Santa Barbara”. But who knows? Maybe this is the sort of ending that is appreciated by the film’s audience in Taiwan and other parts of Asia.

The Taiwanese gay subculture presented in the film seems very effeminite. Everybody looks like a doll and just a personification of campness. Yet, there are numerous references to "Brokeback Mountain" (isn’t Ang Lee from Taiwan originally?) and "The Lord of the Rings". At one point both even collide in a dream. I believe it has always been easier to accept homosexuality in these cultures if the homosexual man behaves and dresses like a woman. Lady boys in Thailand and hijras in India have been traditionally tolerated largely because of this aspect. It seems a lot more difficult to accept a man who behaves and dresses according to the traditional understanding of what men are supposed to be like being gay. I believe this must also be the case in Taiwan. It’s easier to make a camp comedy with exaggeratedly camp, doll-resembling guys than a comedy with ordinary blokes from around the corner. I also believe that campness in itself is perceived as funny. The same way as Mr. Humphries was funny to most people who watched „Are You Being Served?” back in the 1970s. It seems that „Brokeback Mountain” has been sneaked through the back door in this film just to underscore that. And although there is nothing wrong with camp boys in camp comedies (I must admit I quite enjoy them myself), the problem is that it doesn’t do much other than lending a hand to the survival of the cliches about gay men.

"Go Go G-Boys" can be recommended to those of you who would enjoy watching barely dressed Chinese twinks kissing and singing in a camp comedy. It won't rock your world but it will be like having a nice dessert at the end of your meal. To the others I can only say - don't bother!

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Boy Culture (USA, 2006)

2007-11-14T23:52:00.001+02:00

Director: Q. Allan Brocka.
Principal cast: Derek Magyar, Patrick Bauchau, Darryl Stephens, Jonathon Trent.

Everybody needs role models. The choices people make and the lifestyles they have are more often than not influenced by these role models. A role model can be a showbiz star and it can be that cute couple whom you know and who’ve been together for what seems ages and still look glam and all lovey-dovey. But it’s also an individual process. Everybody finds (or often fails to find) his or her own role model(s). When it comes to gay men, these role models often seem to be of the more flamboyant and promiscuous variety. The kind that doesn’t automatically inspire you to have a quiet and monogamous life. Why is it so? Are gay men more afraid of commitments than their straight counterparts or are gay men a different breed with different values and needs?

Q. Allan Brocka’s so far second long feature film „Boy Culture” isn’t aspiring to be moralistic as such. The whole story is presented as a „confession” of a professional hustler who, for the reasons of „anonymity”, goes by the name „X”. Although he has been hustling since his teenage years, he has never had sex with anyone for free. In his own words, he is saving himself for that „special one” and finds more pleasure in masturbation than his work. Emotionally frigid, at least to the outside world, he goes about his life with the same sense of meaning and direction as a lift – in service when required but not much purpose or fun otherwise. It might also be symbolic that he has to use one to come up to his new client Gregory, one he is referred to after one of his other regulars „stops breathing for all the wrong reasons”. Gregory, played by the veteran Belgian/French actor Patrick Bauchau, is an old recluse living in his penthouse apartment high above everything and everybody with only memories to share (and apparently, his substantial savings). Unlike X’s other customers who may have very specific but still rather undemanding demands, Patrick wants X to want him before they make love. Their one hour long (paid) encounters are on the surface nothing more than conversations between a 25-year-old rent boy who knows his Oscar Wilde and a 79-year-old queer who’s got no one else to talk to. However, they soon take the shape of confessions, not unlike X’s own to the film’s audience, which subsequently help to unlock both of them.

In his private life, X shares an apartment (which has a small roof garden) with Andrew, a black guy around X’s age and Joey, an 18-year-old twink who has managed to convince X to let him stay rent-free, just by being „young and fabulous”. But while X doesn’t care much about Joey fooling around and having back-up plans for constantly changing boyfriends, the story is different when it comes to Andrew. As of recently, he has started bringing home „tricks”, thus triggering a strong reaction in our „Ice Queen”. In his confession to the audience, X doesn’t conceal the fact that he is attracted to Andrew and that Andrew is „boyfriend material”. However, he doesn’t do anything about it, and when confronted directly by Andrew while tending to the plants on his roof terrace, he cannot but exclaim „absolutely not” in capital letters. And what would be the point of their relationship? Would X give up his hustling? Will Andrew stop sleeping around? According to X, anyone can fulfill Andrew and why would he be so special? Our „moralistic whore” then makes things even worse by proclaiming that Andrew has now turned into „a very ugly faggot who would probably suck anything with a cock”. Tensions rise and the whole situation gets even more complicated when Joey pledges his love to X while being on drugs after a sex party involving Andrew and a third part (a cameo appearance by Jesse Archer from „A Four Letter Word” and „Slutty Summer”). The outlook is bleak for the three of them but change is on its way and the old guy helps to unlock the garden of Eden.

High moral grounds are not difficult to have in principle. And it’s probably even easier when you are physically high above the ground, like Gregory in his penthouse apartment or X on his roof terrace overlooking the whole of Seattle. Does Gregory live up to his own preachings? Is X afraid of being paid in feelings rather than cool cash? No matter what the answers are to these questions, one thing is focal to the film’s own moral ground. One shouldn’t be afraid to change oneself for the things that matter. One should be able to compromise with oneself and those around one or one can end up old, alone and miserable. Carpe diem – seize the opportunity and don’t be afraid of it.

When the romance between X and Andrew seems irreversably gone, Joey reproaches Andrew for being a bad role model which also sets this whole film in a perspective. In many ways „Boy Culture” is intended as a behavioural role model. It presents the audience with what it sees as a problem and offers a solution which it believes to be the right one. One to follow, just like you follow a role model. But herein also lies the film’s weakness. It offers a recipe and our protagonists follow it, so the grande finale ends up being fairly Hollywoody which is a trap the film’s creators laid out for themselves from the very beginning by aspiring to create a „role model” film. Therefore, the film couldn’t have had a different ending. Who knows, maybe they wrote the script on top of the Space Needle in Seattle?

Yes, also gay men can make a commitment and change their ways to have a lasting relationship, but in many ways it will be a more conscious choice and a choice that one has arrived at in one’s own time to a higher degree than in the straight world. There is seldom any pressure from one’s family to marry another man and there is no biological clock ticking with regard to children. Neither do gay men face the prospect of marrying someone at 18, having five kids and regretting that for the rest of their lives. But also on the other hand, when the going gets tough it is often the children who help straight couples get through their reconcilable differences. With gay men it’s mostly cats or dogs who, however, don’t tend to last as long as most children. I believe that in the end it will always be the conscious effort to commit and remaining true to that commitment which will matter the most for gay and straight couples alike. And yes, one has to be able to change oneself, adapt to different conditions, compromise while keeping one’s own integrity. It’s a difficult and demanding process which takes a lot of effort and is very individual. The story in „Boy Culture” is all about that and very believable until the final part which in my opinion is a bit of a fairy-tale ending – „and they lived happily ever after...”

„Boy Culture” is a thought-provoking film with beautiful actors who also know how to act convincingly. It’s humorous and it’s sexy. Despite its self-induced flaws, I will claim that it’s of one of the best gay-themed films to come out of the US in the recent years.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Vier Minuten (Four Minutes, Germany, 2006)

2007-11-04T16:17:00.001+02:00

Director: Chris Kraus.
Principal cast: Monica Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Pippig.

The German filmmaker Chris Kraus’ second feature film „Vier Minuten” is the latest proof that the German cinematography is capable of creating box office successes outside of the German-speaking countries. Just after one week at cinemas in Italy, it was the second most watched film slightly lagging behind something as predictable as „Spiderman 3”. The film has also won numerous awards at international film festivals including the Audience Best Feature Award at this year’s San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival and The Best Feature Film Award at the Oslo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The film rights for theatrical release have been bought by over 30 countries including Australia and Japan. Back home, at the German Film Awards, the film received this year’s LOLA for the best feature film and the two main leads were awarded LOLAs as the best actresses in leading roles. And deservingly so. „Vier Minuten” is a riveting portrayal of an unlikely friendship between two opposites – an 80 year old Frau Krüger, quintessentially Prussian in her humble appearance and rigid views, and a 20 year old prison inmate Jenny von Loeben, a destructive sociopath convicted of a brutal murder.

The elderly lady’s character is based on a real person from the director’s childhood boarding school, a person who has never ceased to fascinate him. Just like the real life Frau Krüger, our protagonist perceives the world through music and can best express her emotions in teaching it to her students. Young Jenny, on the countrary, has too many emotions which she can’t control. She is unruly and destructive, despised by the prison wards and her fellow inmates alike. The story begins to unfold when Frau Krüger arrives in the prison with her precious piano on a mission to give piano lessons to those willing to learn. An interesting premise and not entirely unlikely in modern Europe where new approaches to rehabilitating criminals are getting more and more popular. Despite the prison ward Mütze’s best attempt to recruit those willing at a church service inside the prison, only four people sign up. The piano is brought to the prison’s library and the individual lessons can begin. The last one to be brought in is Jenny. However, Frau Krüger blankly refuses to teach her because of her messy hands. Jenny goes amok, attacks Mütze, beats him up severely and then engages in a frenzied orgy of piano playing. As Frau Krüger is quitely walking away from all this violence, she is, nevertheless, stunned by what she hears from the library, a masterfully played piece of what she despicably calls „negro music”. Jenny ends up in isolation where she is visited by Frau Krüger who admits that she doesn’t like Jenny or rather her personality one little bit but would like to give her piano lessons. Frau Krüger wants her to win the contest for those under 21! And she is only to play classical music. Reluctantly, Jenny accepts the strict rules imposed by this old lady from another era and they both begin a bumpy and not quite self-evident odyssey of music and violence.

In the meantime, another story unfolds in flashbacks, a story of love and betrayal. In her youth Frau Krüger was in love with a woman who later was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis for being a Communist collaborator. There was, of course, very little she could have done to save her lover's life once she was caught, but the images of their passionate love, the brutal death and her own distancing herself from her beloved are still haunting her. It seems that she hasn’t been able to love another woman since and remained a lonely spinster with music and her memories as her only companions. In Jenny she sees somebody who throws away her talent while her dead love was never given any chance to develop hers. It is therefore imperative for the old lady to get Jenny to that contest. The film culminates in an unforgettable and explosive scene which renders justice to its title.

"Vier Minuten" is a powerful film about lost possibilities and the triumph of will with all the odds against one. Frau Krüger's ascetic world and rigid ways collapse as a result of her time together with Jenny. She opens up to a more colourful and emotional world. Jenny struggles with her emotions through music and eventually finds her humbler self. The four minutes are over, the music is still playing on.

Here you can watch the film's trailer (in German)

Festival Awards: And The Winners Are...

2007-10-29T21:26:00.000+02:00

The 18th International Lesbian and Gay Festival in Hamburg ended on Sunday, 21 October. Throughout the whole festival people were asked to state their opinion about the films they had just seen on pink pieces of paper which were collected by the festival staff at the exits. As a result, the following awards could be given entirely based on the popular vote:

URSULA for the best lesbian short film went to Abbe Robinson from the UK for "Private Life" (more info on this film on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1006939/)

URSULA for the best gay short film went to Michael Mew from Canada for "Peking Turkey" (more info on this film on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831371/)

URSULA for the best transgender short film went to Abe Bernard from USA for "Trannymals Go To Court" (more info on this film at www.trannymals.com)

This is the second time that Abe receives an URSULA. Last year his first Trannymal film which was called simply "Trannymals" also got the award. Congratulations, Abe!

Each URSULA winner received 1,000 EUR.

The MADE IN GERMANY award for the best German short film went to Martin Busker for "HerzHaft" (more about this film and the director at www.martin-busker.de)

The winner in this category will be given the possibility to attend a course at the Berlin Hamburg Film School (www.filmschule-hamburg-berlin.de)

EUROLOLA for the best European film went to Erich Richter Strand from Norway for "Sønner" ("Sons") (more about this film at www.sonner.no)

GLOBOLA for the best intercontinental film went to Brooke Sebold, Benita and Todd Sills from USA for "Red Without Blue" (more about this film at www.redwithoutblue.com)

Festival impressions: Day 6 (the final day)

2007-10-29T20:16:00.001+02:00

Metropolis, one of the cinemas where the festival's films were shown.

Inside Metropolis: posters advertising some of the festival's films.

Before the Sunday matinée film goers could enjoy some hot drinks and croissants on the house.

Joachim from the festival team had also accepted the kind offer.

One of the festival's themes this year was the work of Greta Schiller, an independent American filmmaker. Here - a poster for one of her films - "Paris Was A Woman".

Greta Schiller was also present at Metropolis in connection with the screening of two of her short films. Here - in a conversation with Joachim.

The audience at the screening including Katrin from TalkSofa.

Greta Schiller also answered questions from the audience.

All images by Māra Pētersone.

Festival selection: A Four Letter Word (USA, 2007)

2007-10-29T18:34:00.002+02:00

Director: Casper Andreas.

Principal cast: Jesse Archer, Charlie David, Cory Grant, Virginia Bryan.

If films were cocktails, „A Four Letter Word” would be a Pink Lady. With a cherry on top. Casper Andreas’ second long feature film is an excercise in contemporary urban gay self-defining, rich on flamboyant queer characters as well as jokes worthy of any drag queen on a mission. It is evident that the film was created by gay people, with gay people and for gay people and as such deserves credit for being consequent. Some of the most famous gay characters created on screen were played by straight actors – the entire „gay” sets of „Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, „Brokeback Mountain” and numerous other classics were, in a manner of speech, just fakes. And although I also must give credit where credit is due (they did appear convincing), I still feel somewhat cheated when I realise that all those romantic scenes must have been forced out of them and later „improved” by the film’s editors and other technically minded people. This is certainly not the case with the cast on „A Four Letter Word” – it isn’t necessary to fake their „queerness” – for queer they are!

Luke, played by the relative newcomer Jesse Archer, is a four letter word for horny. Oblivious to any other possible „fun” things in life, he spends his days working in Gayborhood, a gay sex store and his nights playing the field on the local club scene accompanied by his best friend Mace who can probably be best defined by his own words: „I can’t speak for my ass – it’s public property”. At work, his lifestyle is constantly debated by the naked yoga enthusiast and gay rights crusader Zeke who, nevertheless, is still rather fond of him. For under the shallow facade, Luke is more than just the urban gay cliché, an etiquette he certainly doesn’t want to be put on him. One night on his usual manhunt he approaches Stephen with „ph”, played by Charlie David whom many will recognise as Toby from Here! TV’s gay soap opera „Dante’s Cove”. After a brief interaction, our protagonist is labelled by his new acquaintance as just that – „a gay cliché”. This, naturally, hurts Luke who decides to show just how „extraordinary” he is, well, only to be thrown out of the club. In the meantime, „a wannabe actor but currently waiting tables” Peter has his boyfriend Derek moving in with him while his boss Marilyn, brilliantly played by Virginia Bryan, is getting married which prompts her to go amok with what at one point in the film is described as the „Bridzilla” scheme. In order to deliver herself from her alcohol addiction she also starts attending AA meetings with her sponsor Trisha who, however, has other interests at stake with regard to her. Peter and Derek are seen by Luke as a perfect couple and he is happy for Marilyn but he insists that he enjoys being the way he is – single and able to get laid anytime he fancies. This, neverthess, changes after he bumps into Stephen the second time – in the darkroom of a club. They say that opposites attract and it must have been the case here because they are both mysteriously drawn to each other and Luke subsequently attempts to introduce himself to a completely new world – that of monogamy. He knows that his lifestyle isn't sustainable forever. And he seems to have feelings for Stephen. So what can Luke do to change himself? As part of his strategy he even attends a meeting for the sexually compulsive at the local LGBT community centre which I must admit doesn’t sound too far out in a city like New York. Luke really wants things to work out between him and Stephen. But is Stephen actually the one?

„A Four Letter Word” is a romantic comedy set in New York. Still, the characters portrayed are fairly universal and recognisable. The films poses more questions than it attempts to answer. Still, the questions it poses are relevant to most urban gay men of our day and age. Romance versus sex, care versus selfishness, the ability to cohabit and compromise. At the same time, it’s a fun and witty film which should be enjoyed just like a Pink Lady. With a cherry on top.

You can watch the film's trailer here

And a special tribute to Adam Joseph who appears in the film with his song "Faggoty Attention" (that cherry on top)

Festival impressions: Days 4 & 5

2007-10-28T16:49:00.001+02:00

Apparently, the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Hamburg even has a fan club which is advertised here at one of the cinemas.

The Canadian filmmaker and now professor at York University in Toronto John Greyson was in town to present his latest project as well as a number of his shorts at the festival.

John Greyson's workshop took place in an independent cinema in Sankt Pauli called B-Movie. Here: Abe Bernard ("Trannymals") and Til Kreisch (TalkSofa) engaged in a conversation in the cinema's foyer.

John Greyson is probably best known for his feature film "Lilies" which won him several international awards including The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Genie Award and the Best Canadian Film Award at the Montreal International Film Festival in 1996. He has also directed several episodes of the American version of "Queer as Folk".

Some of the audience at the workshop.

Back to Mittagstisch.

Abe Bernard, John Greyson, Markus Götze and some people from the festival team.

Joachim from the festival team and John Greyson.

Abe Bernard on his way to Metropolis to present his short film "Trannymals go to Court".

Passage, one of the cinemas where the festival's films were shown.

Not a completely unreasonable place to raise awareness about AIDS.

Markus Götze presents the new American comedy "A Four Letter Word" in the capacity of its producer.

The audience at the screening of "A Four Letter Word".

Wayne Yung, the director of the German short film "Birthday Games" is grilled on the TalkSofa in the Nachtbar.

Then it's the turn of the well-known American filmmaker Greta Schiller to be in the spotlight.

And I had a chance to chat to John Greyson, the director of my favourite gay film "Lilies".

All images by Māra Pētersone.

Festival selection: Sheng Xia Guang Nian (Eternal Summer, Taiwan, 2006)

2007-10-20T17:27:00.003+03:00

Director: Lester Chen.

Principal cast: Bryant Chang, Hsiao-chuan Chang, Kate Yeung.

A few decades ago it was widely assumed that there were bad films, then there were awful films and then there were Chinese films. Much has changed since those days, especially when it comes to contemporary cinematography from Taiwan. Films coming out of this breakaway part of China continue to impress and “Eternal Summer” is no exception. Its moody and almost intimidating landscapes are a fitting backgound for a story that in itself isn’t particularly original, yet necessary to tell – a story of entering the adult life where you have to make choices and sacrifices in a way you couldn’t imagine.

Our two protagonists, Jonathan and Shane (we’ll stick to their English names here), are practically coerced to being friends at an early age at school. Shane is being a disruptive and unruly child from whom all other kids shy away, and Jonathan, the class orderly, is ordered by his headmistress to befriend Shane to get him on the right path. Although Shane initially sabotages Jonathan’s attempts at changing him, they eventually form a friendship which will only get stronger as they enter adolescence together a few years later. They become virtually inseparable and nothing seems to threaten that.

A girl who has grown up in Hong Kong returns to her native Taiwan and joins the school which the two boys attend. Early on, Carrie, as she is called, befriends Jonathan and they even skip school for a day together to go to Taipei where they also stay the night in a hotel room. Carrie tries to seduce Jonathan but fails and their train ride back to school on the following day is conducted in awkward silence. It doesn’t take Carrie long to realize that Jonathan is in love with Shane and although she quitely accepts it, she is also confused. Shane becomes somewhat jealous that Jonathan seems to hang out a lot with this new girl and tries to get to know her on his own. As a result, Carrie becomes Shane’s girlfriend. In order not to hurt Jonathan, they try to keep it a secret, but no secrets can be kept forever and our three confused youths are taken on a bumpy ride of emotions they barely knew existed.

As I’ve pointed out earler, the plot in itself isn’t very original – girl loves boy, boy loves boy – a triangle drama which is seen before in different combinations. What sets this one apart is the depth of the characters’ emotions shown in respect to each other and the lip-biting silent suffering with which they bear their predicament. Shane is presented with a true dilemma – he can’t afford to lose Jonathan’s friendship, yet he doesn’t want to trade him for Carrie. His own feelings towards Jonathan are also more complex than just those of being his best friend which is clearly shown in one of the more passionate scenes. Jonathan, who can’t force himself to reveal his true feelings to Shane because he also fears losing Shane as his friend, is forced to make a choice as well as Shane. In their new adult lives things can’t stay the same. Carrie cannot but bear witness to the inner struggle in both of them as well as the struggle between them which culminates in a powerful scene on a beach set against the ocean background – the forces of nature at work.

“Eternal Summer” uses the grandness of the surrounding natural settings to highlight the human nature and the storms that it creates. It’s not so much about being one with the nature, it’s more about being part of it. Just like the ocean can get upset and start ravaging the coastline and sinking the ships travelling through it, so can people. Like the ocean, they can also calm down, but as long as they are alive, their emotions will never come to a complete halt. “Eternal Summer” is a beautiful coming-of-age drama which deserves to be seen by many people. The issues it deals with are universal and the fact that it’s in Mandarin shouldn’t deter anyone from seeing it. It is also worth mentioning that the film won the Golden Horse Film Award in 2006 which is the main Taiwanese film prize.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Festival focus: Nachtbar/TalkSofa

2007-10-20T16:49:00.000+03:00

Every year a different location is chosen for the so-called Nachtbar which is a place where people can meet after the day's programme to discuss films and other topics. The exact location is always kept a secret until the opening night when it's announced publicly. This year it's in a place called Maria Kron near Sankt Pauli.

Die hübschen Mädchen behind the bar.

Every night after midnight different festival guests are interviewed on the TalkSofa "Bei Kreischbergers" hosted by Til Kreisch and Katrin Bergers which is also broadcast live on the local radio station TIDE. Here: Markus Götze, a native of Hamburg talking about "A Four Letter Word", a new American film, in the capacity of its producer.

The audience on the spot.

Here Abe Bernard from California is telling about his film "Trannymals".

Our friendly hostess Anja was also there to listen.

And then it was my turn to talk about the LGBT Film Days in Riga and the general gay rights situation in Latvia.

The party doesn't end with the talk show though. You can talk and dance until the wee hours.

Even the bar staff take it pretty easy later in the night.

All images by Māra Pētersone.

Festival impressions, Days 2 & 3

2007-10-20T16:28:00.000+03:00

Inside Studio in Sankt Pauli, one of the cinemas where the festival's films are shown.

And this is what Studio looks like on the outside.

Every day between 12.30 and 2 pm the organisers and guests of the festival gather for a lunch together. It is known simply as Mittagstisch. A great opportunity to make arrangements for the day and meet other people from the festival.

Another shot from Mittagstisch.

The Mittagstisch location is also used for interviews. Here Clair from the US is interviewed by Pink Channel, a local LGBT radio station in connection with the film "Red without Blue" in which she features.

All images by Māra Pētersone.

Festival selection: Huhwihaji anha (No Regret, South Korea, 2006)

2007-10-18T17:05:00.004+03:00

Director: Hee-il Leesong.

Principal cast: Han Lee, Young-Hoon Lee.

It certainly isn’t every day one gets to watch Korean films. Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever seen a Korean film before. My knowledge of Korean drama seems to be limited to the flashbacks of the two Korean characters on ABC’s hit TV show „Lost”. And while you can still tell if the dialogue is convincing in most European languages, even you don’t understand them, simply by listening to the intonations, it is somewhat harder to do the same when it comes to Asian languages. What can seem a typical soap-opera pathos in Spanish, may well be a very respectable way of speaking in the Far East. And this is definitely one of my limitations when it comes to judging this film. Although I have found the acting rather convincing, it only applies to the visual part of it, and I’d be most interested to know what opinion Koreans themselves have on this matter.

„No Regret” is set in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, which, just like its counterparts in most other countries, draws people en masse looking for a better life, opportunities that don’t exist elsewhere in the country. So, when Sumin, one of our two protagonists, reaches the age of 18, he leaves the orphanage in which he has grown up and heads for the big city. In Seoul, he shares a flat with another boy from the same orphanage. Both of them get work at a factory while Sumin also works nights as a driver by request. Requested, that is, by wealthy people who get too intoxicated to drive themselves. One night he is asked to drive home a young guy who shows more interest in him than what the others usually do. Sumin ignores his advances. On the following day he discovers that a bunch of newly hired people are laid off from their factory jobs and he is one of them. It turns out that the rich guy from the previous night, Jaemin, is the son of the factory’s owner. He quickly reinstates Sumin who, however, will have none of it and leaves the factory for good. He gets by doing occasional jobs as a dishwasher and cleaner, but doesn't seem to fit in anywhere and finally decides to enroll as a house boy at a local sex club. Life as a rent boy isn’t directly glorious, but Sumin seems to be doing better than before. Jaemin, on the other side, despite being forced into a marriage by his family, is obsessed with finding Sumin and when he finally does, begins to stalk him. This unleashes an emotional roller-coaster which becomes rather violent in the end.

„No Regret” has been called one of the best recent independent Korean films. I can certainly see why. It has a compelling, albeit fairly twisted plot. Yet, the stories told seem real enough and the fate of these orphan boys in the big city is also touching. Besides, one gets a rare insight into the whole question of masculinity and homosexuality in the Korean society, even if only a little. It is also a romantic love story with what must be a Korean twist. Emotions run high and occasional blows are dealt to all parties involved. No one escapes unscarred.

Here you can watch the film's trailer

Festival selection: Wild Tigers I Have Known (USA, 2006)

2007-10-18T16:33:00.001+03:00

Director: Cam Archer.

Principal cast: Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, Max Paradise, Fairuza Balk.

A mountain lion is killed near a school. 13-year-old Logan is fascinated by the poor creature's fate, for he himself feels like the mountain lion whom everybody hates. The mountain lion becomes a symbol of Logan's angst and loneliness as he is growing up in a fairly desolate landscape, both physically and mentally. He befriends Rodeo, a slightly older guy who unlike the rest of his peers doesn't seem to harbour any feelings of loathing or disgust towards Logan. If anything, he himself appears a bit of a loner. Rodeo claims that he has seen mountain lions in the woods several times and takes Logan on long walks there. They spot some caves where mountain lions must have lived. Soon Logan's interest in Rodeo becomes more than just friendly and he engages in long night phone sex calls pretending to be a girl named Leah. Rodeo wants to meet "Leah" and they agree to meet in the caves.

Cam Archer's first full length feature film is a meditative exploration of a teen boy's mind as he is discovering his sexuality. Gus van Sant is one of its executive producers and some of the people who have contributed to its creation are Jonathan Caouette ("Tarnation") and John Cameron Mitchell ("Shortbus"). The originality of the camera work and the film's beautiful stills have not gone unnoticed as it was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award in the Best Cinematography category earlier this year. The film also won the Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival in 2006.

There is no doubt that "Wild Tigers I Have Known" is what might be called an "arty" film. Dreams and fantasies are mixed with reality to an extent that it isn't always possible to tell the difference. As one's perception of reality is always subjective, a clear-cut distinction may not be that relevant in the end. I certainly don't find it of utmost importance here. On the contrary, it adds to the overall feeling of the alienation that Logan experiences. His daydreaming is his mind's natural defence against just that. The slow and poetic rhythm of the narrative is a mental reflection of the world as Logan deals with it.

All in all, a beautifully shot film dealing with complex issues without shying away from touchy subjects. A must-see for those of you interested in contemporary American queer cinema.

Here is the film's trailer:

Festival impressions, Day 1

2007-10-17T15:55:00.001+03:00

The festival opened on Tuesday night at Streit's Cinema in an upscale part of the city near the City Hall.

There was also time for a glass of Sekt and a nice chat before we found comfort in the seats inside the cinema. Here: Gerda from Filmmotor, Til from TalkSofa and yours truly.

Mingling in the foyer of the cinema.

Some people were dressed for party in environmentally-friendly colours. Here: Katrin from TalkSofa and her friend.

Filmmotor was also on the spot ready to interview the unsuspecting guests.

The hosts of the opening night.

The festival's director made a short presentation.

The entire festival team on stage. Everyone took a turn in spotlighting a particular film or film programme to be shown later in the week.

Maren Kroymann, a famous German actress, entertained the audience before the screening of the opening film "Vivere". She is also widely known for her activism in LGBT issues.

Filmmotor in action at the opening.

The opening film's director Angelina Maccarone and her assistant answer questions from the audience after the screening.

All images by Māra Pētersone.

The 18th International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Hamburg

2007-10-16T18:14:00.000+03:00

The 18th International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Hamburg will open tonight at 7.30 pm at Streit's Cinema with a new German film called "Vivere". The film will be presented by its director Angelina Maccarone. Before the screening the guests will be entertained by the famous German actress Maren Kroymann.

Although it may be somewhat smaller than some of its colleagues, the festival in Hamburg is the oldest one of its kind in Germany. Starting as of tomorrow I will be bringing you news from the festival's screening programme as well as focus reports. Stay tuned in!

Shortbus (USA, 2006)

2007-10-12T01:34:00.003+03:00

Director: John Cameron Mitchell.
Principal cast: Sook-Yin Li, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy.

John Cameron Mitchell’s second feature film was awaited with a great deal of anticipation and quite a few raised eyebrows. It isn’t difficult to see why. The working title of the film which we now know as „Shortbus” was in fact „The Sex Film Project”. In a country where sex usually (or at least, if we believe the mainstream American cinema) takes place under silk sheets with nothing but feet visible, this film must have required some courage on the part of the actors involved, probably even the „sextras” as they are so cheerfully referred to here. It definitely wasn’t an easy ride even for the Canadian lead Sook-Yin Lee, host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 'Radio One' Saturday afternoon show, "Definitely Not The Opera”. Upon learning that their star host was going to participate in unsimulated sex scenes in “Shortbus”, the CBC’s management decided to sack her from her radio job. Only an active petition from such prominent people as Gus Van Sant, Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Julianne Moore made her bosses change their mind. But the irony of it all is that although the explicit sex scenes are instrumental to the way in which the characters are portrayed, this is definitely not a sex film. It strips them naked, but clearly in more than one sense.

This is also not a universally applicable film. The problems of not achieving an orgasm and/or finding a boyfriend/girlfriend may be universal, but the characters we find in “Shortbus” are fairly specific. They are urban and postmodern. The ways in which they choose to deal with their problems are also fairly urban and postmodern: going to a couples’ counselor over the question of a possible open relationship, making a pre-suicide camcord diary, publicly discussing one’s best orgasms and what they felt like etc. In addition to that, as the film is set in New York, the characters on display are even post 9/11 – “the biggest thing that ever happened to them”, according to a fictional former mayor of New York who also features in the film.

James and Jamie, a gay couple, pay a visit to Sofia, a Chinese-Canadian couples’ counselor, to talk about problems in their relationship. The session doesn’t go quite according to the plan and soon enough Sofia feels compelled to explain that she is pre-orgasmic, which means that she has never experienced an actual orgasm. The troubled couple invite Sofia to their little bohemian haunt which is called just that – “Shortbus” – a place for the gifted and challenged (which is a reference to a particular type of schoolbuses in the US). Our protagonist enters a world of unsurpressed sexual exploration where she soon befriends the club’s “mistress” – Justin Bond who, in fact, is a known figure in the underground cabaret world of New York (and under that very same name) and Severin, a dominatrix who can’t cope with her real name and lives in a “tuck away” storage room full of polaroids of the people she encounters. Also Rob, Sofia’s husband is soon involved in the club’s activities when she discovers that he actually knows that he’s never given her an orgasm. The plot thickens when we learn that James and Jamie are constantly being filmed and followed by their neighbour from across the street who doesn’t shy away from even observing them at the club while James tries to introduce a third part to their relationship. Not surprisingly, the whole thing goes awry and requires a great deal of mending in the end.

In many ways, this is a film of despair and hope, confusion and forgiveness. At one point, Justin Bond exlaims while watching a sex orgy in front of him – “this is much like the 60s, only less hope”. In an urban and postmodern environment there are many people who will not hesitate to explore their sexuality, but very often the lack of shyness will be substituted by a lack of feelings and willingness to commit oneself. Sofia who thinks she has a clog between her brain and her clitoris is in this respect a diametral opposite of Severin who wears a mental shell around her which has so far made it impossible for her to have a relationship, although she finds it easy to reach an orgasm. James knows that he has the most loving and caring boyfriend in the world but feels that all this love and care stops just before his skin, thus never actually penetrating him. Symbolically, he has also never allowed anyone to penetrate him. And lo and behold, we have the despair. Every time it gets the better of hope, the electric lights start to flicker until in one moment of collective despair they go out in the whole city and force people to come together and - surprise, surprise – there is light again.

The former mayor of New York whom I’ve mentioned here earlier says in the same scene that “New York is where everyone comes to be forgiven”. And amidst all this confusion our heroes find just that – forgiveness. “Shortbus” is in some ways a continuation of Jonathan Caouette’s “Tarnation” – an autobiographical account of the director’s troubled life compiled from the footage he himself made from the age of 11. In many ways, he also came to New York “to be forgiven” and there are clearly many parallells between Caouette and the people we encounter in “Shortbus”, not to mention his own little cameo appearance at the club. But just like “Tarnation”, this film is not aspiring to be therapy material handed out by the likes of Dr. Phil, nor does it try to provide any clear-cut solutions. If there is a message, it must be to let go of one’s inner inhibitions to be able to reach that metaphorical orgasm, very much in line with the film’s own explicitness.

Here is Justin Bond's adorable song "In the End" performed at the club and accompanied by Hungry March Band. What a gem!

The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (USA, 2005)

2007-09-29T14:12:00.002+03:00

Director: George Bamber.
Principal cast: Daniel Letterle, Diego Serrano, Shanola Hampton, David Monahan.

„The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green” is a gay romantic comedy based on the comic strips of the same name by Eric Orner who is also one of the film’s two scriptwriters. It is also George Bamber’s first accomplishment as director after having worked on more than 20 films as assistant director including such blockbusters as „Men in Black II” and „Jeepers Creepers”. And let me put it this way from the very beginning– he never had any ambitions of joining the likes of Derek Jarman or Eytan Fox with this well-acted and light situation comedy.

As the film’s title suggests, the plot evolves around Ethan Green and his not so fabulous social life. And social life it is as we never actually see him go to work or do any other "meaningful" things that are usually required in any society. However, it doesn’t seem too much out of place as nobody else really seems to be doing any work in this comic universe (even the people who are supposed to be working, like Sunny Deal, a real estate agent charged with the job of selling Ethan’s house). All the characters we come across are pretty much concerned with one thing only - their social lives. In the opening scene we see Ethan reading a book titled „Finding a Boyfriend Within” in a park only to be struck by a ball in the head seconds later. The perpetrator rushes to Ethan’s help and next thing we know is that Ethan’s got a new boyfriend, Kyle. Having a boyfriend as opposed to being married to a woman might be a novelty to the latter, but it’s definitely old news for our hero Ethan. For he has had many of the kind. It doesn’t take long before we’re introduced to two of them: the book store clerk Leo with whom he initially had moved together after their only third date and the camp Latino twink Juarez who for the past 5 years has been living with Ethan’s mother (an unexpected reunion with Meredith Baxter aka the mom from „The Family Ties”). Add to this lot Charlotte, his lesbian housemate, Chester, a gay Republican who is now dating Leo, the two cross-dressing Hat Sisters (played by such unlikely cast as Richard Riehle and Joel Brooks) and a sexually hyperactive twink called Punch, and I think you’ll get the picture. The film’s main theme is what our hero’s mom calls „the Ethan reflex” – his inability to commit himself, his constant search for the „dream date”, a concept which, as we are told through his flashbacks, has haunted him since his childhood’s slumber parties with some pretty mean girls. In his mind he is still playing that game with the purpose of proving to them that he isn’t the loser they wanted him to be. The film’s quite eventful plot takes him on a bumpy ride with the single purpose of showing him that the only way to win the game is to stop playing it.

There is nothing particularly novel in this film. In many ways this is a standard American comedy which is both reminiscent of something like the TV series „Scrubs” with its own main character’s „mostly unfabulous social life” and the numerous romantic (mostly teen-oriented) comedies that have come out of the USA lately. They bear much resemblance both in style and visual execution. What mostly sets this film apart from the others is that it’s about gay relationships. And although many people will find this film a bit too shallow and not entirely realistic, they should also remember that romantic comedies are rarely anything but. The film does contain quite a few gay clichés and most characters will seem over the top, but there is never smoke without a fire and you can hardly expect a film which is based on comic strips to portray average folk with average personalities. Nor does this film deal with the issues of coming out, being accepted by friends and family, having to fight against discrimination or anything like that. And thank God for that! The universe in „The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green” is a gay normality where its characters don’t fall victims to hate crimes or commit suicide, don’t have to struggle to come out to their parents or workmates. They simply live their gay lives dealing with their relationship problems in a world where their sexuality isn’t suppressed by heteronormativity. In that respect, it’s a relief that not all gay-themed films have to be Greek tragedies and a good omen that a former star of one of the most popular American TV sitcoms about „family values” here plays a mother who isn’t just accepting her son’s sexuality but also tries to help him with his relationship problems. It’s also a cheerful comedy which made me smile with recognition, laugh at the jokes and get a tear in my eye in the end. This film clearly targets a gay audience and can be at times difficult to fully appreciate for a non-gay audience, but I think it will make an enjoyable and light-hearted viewing for most non-homophobic audiences.

10 minuta (10 Minutes, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 2002)

2007-09-26T20:56:00.000+03:00

Here you can watch Ahmed Imamovic's short film "10 minuta" which won him the Best European Short Film Award in 2002. If you want to know more about his latest film, please read my review of "Go West".

Ha Buah (The Bubble, Israel, 2006)

2007-09-26T17:27:00.001+03:00

Director: Eytan Fox.

Principal cast: Ohad Knoller, Yousef Sweid, Daniela Virtzer, Alon Friedman.

Since the advent of story-telling, people of all nationalities have been fascinated and easily touched by accounts of unhappy love. Even more fascinating have always been the tales of impossible love, love that cannot be. The Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox’ latest film „The Bubble” is about that. And then it is also not. The title of the film refers to the „bubble” that is Tel-Aviv set against the background of the political realities of Israel. The country’s cosmopolitan and unofficial capital city doesn’t have much in common with Nablus, a city in the Palestinian West Bank which also features in the film. It doesn’t have much in common with the tense and hateful atmosphere at the Palestinian checkpoints. Actually, it doesn’t seem to have much in common with anything surrounding it. The „bubble” of Tel-Aviv allows people to have a lifestyle which isn’t much different from what you may expect in any Western city. Teenage girls looking for Britney Spears’ records, a lifestyle magazine editor looking for a sexy cover for his next issue, trendy people sitting in trendy cafes discussing trendy things over cups of cappuccino and other similarly trendy drinks, while those at home are watching the local edition of Pop Idol. It is this „bubble” that also has the potential to lull one’s mind into a false sense of reality.

The film evolves around the lives of three young Israelis who share a flat and, for the most part, try to stay out of politics. Yelli, the camp owner and manager of „Orna & Ella”, a hip cafe, rarely leaves the city and prefers not to think about the „crap that surrounds them”. Noam, a soft and easygoing employee of a slightly avantguard record store, seems to be equally unwilling to engage in long political discussions and contemplations. Lulu, the only female of the lot, is on the contrary linked to the Israeli Left, although her political activities seem to be confined to „raves against the occupation”. Yelli and Noam naturally don’t object to participating in these. Lulu and her political friends make t-shirts with the rave’s logo, put up posters and hand out booklets advertising it in the neighbourhood. Their main concern seems to be that there are never any actual Palestinians participating and that the police might come and spoil all the fun for them again. The closest they come to an actual confrontation is when they get into a scuffle with some not so Palestinian-friendly locals who try to prevent them from handing out the leaflets. In other words, predictable products of the „bubble”.

The opening scenes of the film take us to a checkpoint on a road to Nablus where we also find Noam doing his reserve duty. A group of Palestinians is being thoroughly checked before entering Israel, among them a pregnant woman who suddenly goes into labour and gives birth to a stillborn child despite the best efforts from Noam and the doctor who eventually arrives in an ambulance. The woman is comforted by a young man who later turns up on Noam’s doorstep in Tel-Aviv with his ID which the latter obviously dropped during the ordeal on the border. His name is Ashraf, he’s Palestinian and he’s gay. And he hasn’t just come to hand back the ID, he has come to see Noam. Without a permit to live in Israel and despite the initial hesitation from Noam's flatmates he stays. He soon gets a Jewish name and a job at Yelli’s cafe. Having grown up in Jerusalem with Hebrew, he doesn’t have an Arabic accent which makes it possible for him and his newly found friends to conceal his identity. The sky is light blue and the air is sweet. But it cannot last. For he has become part of an equation which was never meant to be.

At one point, Noam and Ashraf watch a play called Bent about two prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp who have a love relationship which can never become physical or visible to the surrounding guards. They find a way of being together on another level, a metaphysical one, a level where no one else has access. This is also where our couple arrives in the end. And it couldn’t have been much different for them, not in today's Israel.

„The Bubble” is a political statement about the bubble that bursts when confronted with the political realities of today’s Israel set against the background of a beautiful and awkward love story involving an Israeli and a Palestinian, the impossible love story in a divided world where no such things as compromise or other colours than black and white exist. „The Bubble” is also a beautiful film about people, gay and straight, inhabiting that strange city, Tel-Aviv, shown through the eyes of people who really care about them. The film's premise may have its flaws and the fatal chain of events may seem somewhat construed, but its strong message and emotional impact will not leave you untouched.

Go West (Bosnia & Herzegovina, 2005)

2007-09-21T21:31:00.003+03:00

Director: Ahmed Imamovic.

Principal cast: Mario Drmać, Tarik Filipović, Rade Šerbedžija, Mirjana Karanović.

The war in Bosnia which took place between 1992 and 1995 was a grim affair. Its effects will linger on for generations and its heritage will haunt not only the Bosnians themselves but also the rest of the civilised world for many years to come. Some issues will only be dealt with properly when the biggest wounds have healed. As you can see in Germany, it has taken the country 60 years to produce „Der Untergang” (The Downfall, 2004) which offers a nuanced portrait of Adolf Hitler as a person and „Mein Führer - Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler” (Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler, 2007) which is in fact a comedy. Since the end of the war, there have been made several films in Bosnia & Herzegovina dealing with the issue. Actually, most of the films recently produced in Bosnia & Herzegovina have been related to the war in one way or another. “No Man’s Land” even won an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2002. In many ways, Bosnian films dealing with the war and subsequently post-war traumas are expected, and hardly anyone would have batted an eyelid in connection with another film dealing with these issues, if it wasn’t for the fact that "Go West" evolves around a gay couple.

The film director Ahmed Imamovic became known internationally as a result of his graduation project from the Bosnian Film Academy, a 10 minute long film appropriately called “10 Minutes” which almost immediately won him the Best European Short Film Award in 2002 (see a separate blog entry for this film). I believe, this partly explains why he got the green light to go ahead with his first full length feature project “Go West” despite the controversial choice of main characters. And the choice indeed proved to be just that – controversial. Long time before the film was even completed, Ahmed Imamovic received death threats from upset Muslim fundamentalists. Commentators found it obscene that a film about such a great tragedy as the Bosnian war would involve portrayal of “sexual perverts” and argued that its "sacrilegious" premise would disgrace the whole Bosnian nation. However, the indignation mostly vanished after the film was released and shown in cinemas all across Bosnia & Herzegovina. The main message of the film is about humanity and the tragedy of war and it has seemingly also been received as such by the general Bosnian audience.

The war takes its toll on all people involved in it, willingly or otherwise, not just the righteous martyrs and war-mongering scoundrels as some wish to present it. Furthermore, some of the war’s victims have to carry the weight of a double stigma, and the war doesn’t discriminate when it comes to suffering and misery. The film’s main characters are Kenan, a professional cello player of Muslim origin, and Milan, his Serbian lover whom we first meet in Sarajevo on the brink of civil war. Kenan still doesn’t believe that an actual war will break out, but Milan insists this is their last chance to escape before it does. They finally depart, but the Serb forces have already surrounded the city and getting out of Sarajevo for the Muslim part of the population proves rather tricky as no circumcised men get past these madmen with weapons. But Milan gets an idea and they both manage to get to his native village, Kenan dressed up as a woman. Their plan is to find a way of leaving this country as it’s sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of mass murder and pure insanity and simply “go West”. In the meantime, we see local men march off to the frontline only to be returned as cartloads of corpses some time later. We see a local Orthodox priest passionately igniting ethnic hatred in his preachings and singing about Serbia from Tokyo to New York. We see brutality and complete and utter indeference to the former neighbours’ plight. We see everything’s and everyone’s fragility, but most of all, hopelessness. And then in the midst of all this we see a scene where Milan tells Kenan about Holland, a country whose biggest export item are tulips. A country far away and yet so close, a country which is the complete antipode to their present surroundings. A ray of hope in the midst of hopelessness, a vision of normality, a different normality – one that doesn’t kill you for what you are, one where you don’t have to conceal your identity in order to survive. However, Milan is soon enough called to the trenches and Kenan is forced to fight his everyday silent battle alone in the company of Ljubomir, Milan’s father and Ranka, a local woman whose reputation keeps the other villagers miles away from her. The situation inevitably gets out of control and nothing will ever be the same again. Like in any war, there are ultimately no winners, only losers.

Some people criticise “Go West” for making a mockery of Serbs, generalising about a whole people. And yes, some scenes seem somewhat exaggerated and caricaturising: the singing well-wishers arriving at the wedding on what seems to be the biggest truck known to mankind, the war-mongering but legless priest, the chainsaw-playing twins. I was never there myself, so I couldn’t say for sure, but somehow even those characters don’t seem too bizarre and out of place and time. To be honest, the relative comic relief which they offer is rather reminiscent of some of the characters in Emir Kusturica’s film universe and you can hardly accuse him of being anti-Serbian. The madness of war brings out many things in people. Tim Judah, the author of the book “The Serbs. History, Myth and The Destruction of Yugoslavia” and a former Balkan war correspondent, quotes a psychiatrist who stayed in Sarajevo throughout the war saying that his mental patients “had had some improvement, by contrast normal people had got worse”. When seemingly normal people turn into mass murderers almost overnight, you can definitely believe a few bizarre characters in "Go West". On the other side, you also see ravaged characters, people without any future hopes, only past to turn to for comfort. People who also know it all too well. The totality of the ongoing tragedy weighs heavily on most characters in this film. The others, those taken over by insanity, will unavoidably have to deal with it later. If they survive, that is.

“Go West” is not a "black" film despite its rather "black" premise. Most of all, I think it is a film about the human spirit which will prevail in even the most unhuman circumstances. It is about that ray of hope. It is about immense loss, but also the courage to continue. The cello shall play on!

Here you can watch the film's trailer

This Is England (UK, 2006)

2007-09-15T16:26:00.004+03:00

Director: Shane Meadows.

Principal cast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham.

There are films which deal with reality through fiction in its many forms and there are films which try to portray reality as accurately as a human mind can remember it adding an almost documentary feel to them. "This Is England" certainly belongs to the latter category since the skinhead environment which is the main framework of the film’s plot is recreated by and large from the memories of Shane Meadows, its director. But it also recreates so much more – the 80s, the North of England in the 80s, growing up as a working class lad in the North of England in the 80s. A lot of effort went into recreating authentic hairdos, styles, interior and such. If there has ever been a period piece about the 80s, this is definitely the one.

The film follows the life of a 12 year old boy Shaun (although I must admit that he physically appears to be somewhat younger), a lonesome and rather awkward lad who lives alone with his mother since his dad died in the war over the Falklands. On his way home back from his last day at school before holidays he meets a gang of skinheads with whom he soon forges bonds of friendship. At first glance, this is a motley crew of bored teenagers of both sexes who should have been too cool to other than snigger at the little Shaun. Still, they take him in, if only because they are craving for a new face. To be part of the gang he also needs to look the part, so soon enough his head is bald, he wears a Ben Sherman shirt with suspenders and accompanying boots. But the change isn’t only in his appearance (funny enough, his mother only objected to his shaved head, but didn’t say a word about his overall skinhead look), he seems to have got a sense of belonging and cameraderie which seems to make his life more meaningful and simply more fun. As for this bunch of self-proclaimed skinheads, their „misbehaviour” is relatively innocent – the worst thing they do is go berserk in an abandoned house. Their gang even includes a Jamaican – a far cry from the white supremacy direction that the skinhead movement is about to take. And presumably, it would have stayed that way, at least, in their case, had it not been for the return of Combo, an older skinhead who had just been released from prison. Disenchanted with the world and bitter about his own misfortunes he soon tries to lead the group onto a much bumpier road – a fight for England with „no niggers and other scum” who take the jobs and housing away from the English. The group splits in the middle and Shaun is carried away by Combo’s rhetoric whom he now sees as something of a father figure. Combo, in his turn, sees Shaun as the young apprentice and soulmate he needs in order to feel better about himself. But when the going gets tough, young Shaun is forced to question Combo’s moral authority and racist views.

What is remarkable about this film is not so much the plot itself, but the mental dissection of the two main characters – Shaun and Combo. Much has been said about Thomas Turgoose, the newly found talent who plays Shaun. He has even received The Most Promising Newcomer Award for his part in the film. And his acting is indeed very convincing, maybe because he didn’t really have to act in the true meaning of the word. I found that the most amazing performance in the film came from Stephen Graham who played Combo and whom many remember as the dim-witted Tommy in Guy Ritchie’s "Snatch". In this role he shows the full amplitude of Combo’s emotions and especially the unpredictability of his character. Combo is a social outcast, a loser in all respects, somebody who has never had many happy memories about anything. When he tells Lol, a girl he once spent a night with before going to jail, that that night is the happiest memory he has, she smashes the last illusion of a happy memory in him by saying that for her it was the most disgusting memory. He is bitter at the world, he is full of hatred toward all these people who have it better off than him, especially if they aren’t white. So the choice of a scapegoat is obvious which has also made it so much easier for the National Front and the likes of them to recruit Combo and other bitter and disenchanted „Thatcher’s children” to their cause and political ideas. Suddenly, one’s life gets a meaning and a way of channelling out the dark emotions in oneself, if only in the wrong direction. But that is still on a higher and more general level. When Combo is directly confronted with the happy memories of Milk, the Jamaican member of the original pre-Combo gang, the hatred becomes personal and inevitably culminates in an explosion of uncontrollable violence. The world is never as black and white as presented by the extremist ideologists and this certainly also applies to Combo. For all it’s worth, he actually liked the guy and having made sure that he actually considers himself English even wanted him to join his gang. The fact that Stephen Graham is himself of a mixed racial background (his grandfather was a black Jamaican) only adds to the depth of his portrayal of the demons Combo fights with in himself.

The Falklands war which takes place in the background is a parallell to the world of the bullying skinheads, only the war takes it onto the national level. Combo and his friends bully the "niggers" because it makes them feel better about themselves. One can argue that the Falklands war took place because it made the British nation feel better about themselves. This makes it all the more ironic that Combo is the one who fiercely opposes this war.

All in all, a superb English film with excellent actors and a genuine depth to it without relying on your recognition of symbols and coded messages. It’s as straightforward as it can be – what you see is what you get and you get it galore.

Du levande (You, the Living, Sweden, 2007)

2007-09-11T20:51:00.002+03:00

Gläds då, du levande i din djupt uppvärmda säng innan Lethes iskalla våg slickar din flyende fot.

Therefore rejoice, oh thou living one, blest in they lovelighted homestead, ere the dark Lethe’s sad wave wetteth they fugetive foot.

Director: Roy Andersson.

The Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson’s latest film "Du levande" (You, the Living) is not easy to review. One of the reasons is that in his own words he has broken with the Anglo-Saxon tradition of story-telling, in all essence the template of most Western film productions. Another reason might be that although Roy Andersson is somewhat heavy on symbolisms, his, unlike those of, say, Andrei Tarkovsky, are of a more elusive nature. It took him 3 years to complete this 86 minute long film and it wasn’t because he was forced to have long breaks between shootings due to financial troubles or problems with the actors. The film consists of 57 vignettes shot mostly by a still camera, and it was the careful design of each of these scenes which required much time. The imagery of this film which is closely related to the director’s previous film "Sånger från andra våningen" (Songs from the Second Floor, 2000) is of utmost importance to the story, thus this story is told to a great degree by the surroundings and the environment in which the characters of Andersson’s universe dwell and interact. Before each scene was finally shot, there would have been no less than 10 different test shootings with different actors, colours, dialogue etc. The result is a dreamlike version of the surrounding world which most of us would recognize and if the setting is like a dream, why not dream a little? Just like in Bunuel’s "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", when somebody says “Last night I had a dream”, you get to watch it. But then again, what is perceived as reality here is not very much different from the dreams.

Despite the fact that the film lacks a plot in the traditional sense of the word and there are no main characters as such, the different characters who appear and reappear in different scenes still meet each other and their stories are inevitably intertwined. What most of these characters have in common is their apparent loneliness despite being surrounded by other people. The trailer trash chain smoking and binge drinking woman who dreams of having a motorbike so that she can get away from “all this shit”, her corpulent and mostly silent boyfriend and his frail and seemingly gentle but rather absent-minded mother, members of a brass band whose skill improving efforts at home aren’t getting a favourable reception neither from their families nor their neighbours, the depressed Middle Eastern hairdresser and his arrogant customer on his way to “a very important business meeting”, an elderly man having a nightmare about bombers in the skies, a young girl dreaming about marrying the young rock star that she is so madly in love with. It’s all about dreams and nightmares versus reality but it works as much as a statement in support of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s claims that “all human communication is miscommunication”. People speak to each other but it is as if they speak past each other. They try to reach out to the others but shut the others out when those try to reach them.

"Du levande" (You, the Living) is a poetic film set physically in Stockholm but yet universally applicable. The society it portrays is Sweden, its artistic language and the people displayed are generally unmistakably Nordic. Yet, the subject it deals with, namely, the misery of the humankind in a selfish world, reaches far beyond this hemisphere. Despite the seriousness of its theme, the film itself seems a lot more cheerful and laden with humour than one might have expected. But in the words of the director himself “living is so complicated to each one of us that the only thing that saves us is our sense of humor”. Hence, this film is a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy, depending on your sensitivities, and not a depressing black reality tour of the human nature. It is unusual in its language and structure, but if you can think outside the box and enjoy it, you will certainly find this film both entertaining and meaningful at the same time. It was shown at this year’s Cannes festival as part of the Un Certain Regard programme which offers “original and different works” outside the competition. After the film was shown in the Salle Debussy, the 1,000 strong audience gave it a standing ovation for several minutes. Do I need to say more?

Here is a short film about the making of "Du levande".

And here you can watch a video clip for The Reckoner, a Radioheads song which uses scenes from the film

Keillers Park (Sweden, 2006)

2007-09-11T19:29:00.002+03:00

Director: Susanna Edwards.

Principal cast: Mårten Klingberg, Pjotr Giro.

"Keillers Park" is a Swedish film made in 2006 which is loosely based on the story surrounding the tragic death of a 37 year old man in the aforementioned park in the middle of Gothenburg in 1997. His death was a homophobic killing, and although the victim's boyfriend was accused of his murder initially, the real perpetrators were later found and convicted.

What might have been another hate crime story actually turned out to be a film about the belated sexual awakening and coming out of Peter, a 30 something Swedish civil engineer of Latvian origin (yes, isn't that an interesting twist to the story?) who finds his entire existence turned upside down after a chance encounter with Nassim, a gay free spirit born in Algeria, longing to open a "tabac" in Paris, but stuck in the cold climate of Sweden. Giving in to his desire, Peter soon loses the perfect Swedish middle class life he has been leading hitherto - his girlfriend understandably enough walks out on him, his stock conservative father disowns him and throws him out of the family business he was soon to inherit. His former friends want nothing to do with him anymore and he finds it difficult to adjust to the new ones that come with the new territory. However, the personal happiness that seems to have come with the changes in his life still makes up for the losses. Or so he thinks. After a quarrel, Nassim is gone for several days and when he calls in the dead of the night asking for his bag, Peter discovers a plane ticket to Paris in Nassim's name. Shortly thereafter, the police storm Peter's flat, take him into custody and charge him with Nassim's murder.

The story of the two men's relationship is revealed through Peter's interrogation by the police using flashbacks and is never boring, albeit painful to watch at times. The storytelling is strong and somewhat convincing, but I must say, only somewhat. I believe that it's possible to keep such an essential part of one's personality as sexuality at bay for many years, then something triggers one's true essence to come forth and lo and behold - here he is - sharing his bed with another man. I must admit that it sounds slightly out of this world, but yeah, what the hell, I can believe such premise - people are, after all, strange and often inexplicable beings. What I did find a lot less convincing was the apparent ease with which the change came. It may be down to the cliche non-expressive facade of the Nordic people, but it just seemed like Peter really didn't find it particularly hard to, in all essence, lose the ground he had been standing on. Also the culture clash between the orderly mind of a Swedish engineer and that of a free North African spirit was to be expected but I found the way in which it was shown rather perplexing. Nassim simply explodes one night because he's had enough of Peter. The build-up to the scene is simply not sufficient to make me believe such a sudden outburst, especially Peter's reaction. It is instrumental to the plot but it certainly does nothing to present the characters in a more realistic fashion.

Another flaw with the story is that Peter's surroundings in Sweden of our day and age all seem to be so homophobic and prejudiced, especially taking into account that the story takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city. The police interrogating Peter make homophobic remarks, his former friends are horrified that he's gay and his father completely abandons him. Although even in Sweden all of this could have happened, the totality of it all doesn't feel all too real. Actually, I could see this film set in Latvia to a higher degree than in Gothenburg, hence the irony of the main character being of Latvian origin. In a way, one could say that this is the first film ever made about a gay Latvian and in that respect the tragedy of it all only seems appropriate. Or not.

Susanna Edwards' first attempt at a full length feature film comes across as solid. The acting is mostly good and the camera work deserves a big compliment. Despite some flaws, "Keillers Park" is certainly worth watching. It's a murder thriller and it's a love story. With a Swedish noir feeling about it.

Here you can watch the film's trailer