Futur Drei

This film is genuinely the most important piece of cinema of our generation. Germany needs this movie more than anything else on screen. I saw this movie three times, because so many of my friends needed to see it. Most of us are immigrants and refugees who have never seen ourselves represented on screen in such a careful and brilliant way. We are touched, moved and inspired by this work.

I would even go so far as to say that this film is more important than Call Me by Your Name.

There are numerous aspects with which many more people can relate to than I had originally expected, which is the true strength of this film. The directors intent was to bring queer immigration stories to the mainstream screen, which is incredibly ambitious and I think he succeeded, even though I did have the feeling that there were several aspects such as relationships with the family that could have been played out a little more. However, this only makes me look forward to his future works.

Born in Germany to Iranian parents, Parvis is an outsider, being gay in the Iranian community, and an "ethnic" within the gay community. Given community service as a translator and general help in an refugee camp for Iranians who are hoping to be allowed to stay in Germany (and who view Parvis with suspicion), he manages to befriend a brother-sister duo, though he definitely has eyes on the brother.

This is another of these films where I wish I could tell whether they were speaking German or Farsi. Some things might be lost in translation. There are various elements of the story that need better explanation. There are some dream sequences that I found superfluous, wishing that they had spent more time sketching out some of the secondary characters. However, the young cast is adorable.

I found it boring and confusing. The random jump cuts are pretty jarring and honestly nothing happened to really make me care about any of the characters. Lots of strange scenes seemingly thrown in at random.

It's really quite messy and, frankly, boring.

Saw this during the Movies That Matter 2021 filmfestival, normally in The Hague but now 100% online. I have many problems to find a position in this drama, which is a positive conclusion, all things considered. There are no bad guys/girls, and no one behaves badly or opportunistically at the expense of someone else. We see the differences in language and culture we expected, but it is not the core of the plot. The story moves forward under the impending doom of what awaits those seeking asylum in a country that is not very eager to accept new immigrants. We also see lots of other topics pass by, like a proposal for a marriage of convenience as a legal way to stay in Germany. We see parents with the best of intentions working day and night to prepare a bright future for their son, who however does not seem to fully appreciate all their efforts. We see the same parents deliberating to stay in Germany or to return to Iran where their heart still is. And so on. The social context makes this movie the must-see it certainly is.

Apart from all that, there is the gay relationship that tends to dominate the story line. If gets much attention in the proceedings and takes a considerable part of the running time. This is logical and pertinent to the story, as most bystanders frown on it, Germans as well as Iranians, and the two men make weak attempts (not with great success) to conceal it. We see lots of action in bed, but without frontal nudity and without genitals in sight, which is a good thing as most viewers abhor gay sex and would consider it a reason to avoid this movie. The latter would be a pity, as there is much more to it than bed scenes.

If that gay relationship had been the single plot line, the movie would not have been half as interesting. There are ample side topics to make watching it worthwhile. I regret that many announcements for this movie emphasize the gay relationship too much, thereby risking to mislead potential viewers and letting them avoid it. Do not give in to this negative reaction, and you get social commentary in triplicate.

The German film Futur Drei was shown in the U.S. with the title No Hard Feelings (2020). (For some reason, IMDb lists the title as Wir. No explanation.) The movie was co-written and directed by Faraz Shariat.

Benny Radjaipour plays Parvis Joon, a young man of Iranian descent, who was born in Germany. For a relatively trivial offense he is sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which he completes at a refugee center.

Banafshe Hourmazdi as Banafshe and Eidin Jalali as Amon are brother and sister refugees, who live in the center and are seeking asylum in Germany. Amon and Parvis are gay, and they fall in love.

The plot of the movie tries to answer the difficult question of whether love is possible in the context of a pending forcible return to a country where gays are under attack.

I thought the movie was excellent and the entire film was clearly the work of a talented director and talented actors.

We saw this movie as part of Rochester's wonderful ImageOut LGBTQ Film Festival. (Shown virtually.) The movie has a borderline IMDb rating of 6.9. I thought it was much better than that, and rated it 9.