'Los Fuertes' is a beautiful and classic Chilean love story. Lucas is an artist who has won a scholarship to Canada. He travels to a small island to visit his sister on the way. He is estranged from his parents, who see him as a 'sinner' for having come out as gay. His sister welcomes Lucas gladly, as her own marriage is under strain. Through her, he meets Antonio, a proud, local fisherman who does odd jobs to help her out.
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The first day they meet, they spend the afternoon wordlessly throwing wood around (raunch metaphor needs no subtlety!). They happen to meet up again at a bar, and talk easily, well into the night. It's not long before they start up a relationship, spending long, sensuous nights in Antonio's cabin. But life has a way of getting in the way of holiday romances.
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Antonio's ex is a jealous jerk, and Lucas' impending travel date looms. Antonio is welded to the sea and the island. What seems like an oppressive small town to Lucas, is still a beloved community to Antonio. He says at one point: my father died here, I belong here. Place matters to Antonio in a way that Lucas cannot grasp. What does the future hold for these lovers? More sexy and wistful adventures, or inevitable heart ache? 8/10 a delight.
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⬇️Continued: intersectionality in the comments⬇️
Phenomenal film everyone must watch, @inmyblooditruns. The documentary follows Dujuan, an Arrernte boy who is a healer. He inherited the gift, passed down from his great grandfather, when he died. He is being trained by one of his grandmothers, who is also a healer. She see his spirit is shifting away from the centre, as Dujuan's turmoil grows.
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At 10 years old, Dujuan is often articulate beyond most adults, describing the impact of intergenerational trauma of his people and the injustice he sees daily. When he grows up, he says without wavering, he will meet the Prime Minister and say, 'Stop killing Black people.' At other times, he communicates simply, like the kid he is, yet still manages profound insight. ('What's a coffin? Like this box?')
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Filmed in 2016, Four Corners had just broken the story of the torture of Aboriginal children at Don Dale Detention Centre. Every Aboriginal person we see, young and old, is glued to the news, or on the radio driving through town. Dujuan talks about the impact of 'cruelling kids,' his Aunt's way of describing what happened to her as a youth (for example, she and other Aboriginal girls were starved for one week).
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Like many First Nations people, everyone in Dujuan's family was either stolen, or has a parent or grandparent telling vivid stories about being forcibly removed from their families under forced assimilation.
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Dujuan has a clear vision for Aboriginal sovereignty. He wants to use his schooling to fight for lands rights. But he is increasingly bored at school, with White teachers forcing dull repetition from the front of the class, yelling at him, or laughing at Dreaming stories in the classroom. The police keep throwing him into the paddy van for simply playing in the park. The school principal threatens him with expulsion, telling him he will end up in jail. Again, he is 10. Given that Aboriginal kids are stripped searched at high rates, & that people are currently doubting a 9 year old disabled Murri kid (Quaden Bayles), our nation's ongoing trauma on Aboriginal kids remains endemic.
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The film provides a searing look at racism in education & celebrates the strong role of Aboriginal mothers and grandmothers
What does the love of a lifetime feel like? Is it passionate, brief, perfect and unforgettable? Or is it working through the mundane of raising a family, sorting through old clothes, talking over routine sex, and standing quietly, comfortable, on a pretty balcony? 'End of the Century' is a remarkable film that plays with narrative, time and memory.
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Ocho is an Argentinean man travelling in New York, slinking through a solitary life, content, but still wondering if he made a mistake ending his 20-year relationship. He spies Javi, a Spaniard, and follows him to a beach. Javi rides away, but fate brings the two together for a night of phenomenal, yet, curiously, intimate sex. Ocho can't shake the feeling they've met before. And so the film thrusts into a poetic spiral, whirling back and forth, through the present, past, and future, unraveling missed opportunities, lives drawn one way, then sketched in another.
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I recall only a handful of films that dislocated me as a viewer without explaining gigantic shifts in perspective (Mad Detective; The Black Coat's Daughter; Memento). End of the Century also tore at me like some of my favourite romantic films (Conversations With Other Women; Before Sunrise trilogy), with the acts of talking and listening grounding this story of desire and emotional connection. This film will cling to you, and like a dream that woke you laughing, you won't want it to fade.
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Thank goddess for a #QueerScreen Spanish language film that doesn't feature trauma, and where gay men are sexual, enamoured and fulfilled - even if the audience has no idea what's happening with the non-linear story. Go watch it, and revel in whatever big love it reminds you of; the one that got away, or the lover you married and now barely recognise. Remember and honour them all. 8/10.
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⬇️Intersectionality, continued in the comments.⬇️
