No Hard Feelings - Le monde est à nous

Beautiful scenes, great development, truly hard and loving emotions. great film to empathize with the reality of many young lgbt immigrants community.

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.

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 title of my review is because it's not only a gay movie but it talks about so many things at a time. The belonging, freedom and cultural diversity and especially in a refugee center. The guys are super handsome and there is so much of depth. It's a bit longer and 10-15 minutes could have been shorter.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first watched this but thinking back on it in it was a actually a really good film in all that it presented. The acting was good, it had a good story and it came off pretty authentic for the most part. It's a film I would watch again.