Los Fuertes

The title is ambiguous. Los Fuertes can mean The Tough Guys or something similar as well as The Forts. These forts' history as the first ones to have been taken by Chilean nationalists in 1820 from the Spanish frames the story. Scenes of the reenactment of this historic victory take place at various times during the film and impart a sort of impregnability to the other story recounted, the hot and sultry love affair between a local bosun and an architecture student on a visit to his sister before leaving for Montreal for a post grad course.

There is chemistry between the two leads - no fake dry kissing here. Their affair is deep and swift, happening in the space of a few days but causes changes in the local community that impinge on work and other relationships. Along the way, a family relationship is mended, a childhood home revisited, a business decision is taken, a spurned lover takes revenge and all this stems from the affair that we see unfolding.

The ending is bittersweet. There is no rancour and no sentimentality. They have made their decisions.

The beauty of cinematography, the precise acting, the shadow of history, the reactions of community, the realistic portrait of family are the basic virtues of this bitter- sweet film , a love one but , more important, a honest, direct image of loneliness, adulthood basic, fundamental traits , beauty of dialogue and the feel to be part of story for viewer. A film about honesty to become yourself with entire soul.

Saw this movie during the 2020 Chicago Reeling Virtual Film Festival. The movie has a slow but steady pace. The director took great shots to document the beautiful city of Valvidia. I feel that the cinematography enhanced the story - like a supporting actor. This is a short yet sweet romance: boy meets boy, boys falls in love, boys realizes the difference in their lives However, life steps in and realities must be faced. The chemistry between the main characters is solid, supporting cast gave good performances. Overall a pleasing movie.

'The Strong Ones' as it is called in English, doesn't provide anything particularly new for queer cinema fans but what it lacks in originality the film makes up for in mood, charm and location - the Chilean seaside town is definitely a character unto itself. It's a well known tale, for both queer and heteronormative cinema, a character returns to their family to resolve issues from the past before moving far away indefinitely. During their short stay they find passionate love and face the decision of whether to continue on their planned journey or remain with this new love. There's nothing wrong with this formula but its been done a lot. This film certainly has similarities to God's Own Country and Weekend but is less gritty and more romantic than both of those films. There are moments where potential drama is hinted at but then never followed through with or used to raise the dramatic stakes. It's a gentle story, a happy one for the most part and that could be all the filmmakers wanted to achieve. In this frequently harsh world I guess it's not such a bad thing for a film just to be nice. Other positives are the two leads who are compelling and charming to watch. Their attraction feels authentic and a couple of sex scenes are tastefully handled yet arousing. There is also a sweet relationship between one of the men and his grandmother. As queer cinema goes this is definitely one to watch particularly when you are looking for something comforting, familiar and well made.

Los Fuertes (2019) is a Chilean film written and directed by Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo. It was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Strong Ones.

Samuel González portrays Lucas, a young student of architecture who visits his sister in the Valdivia region of Chile. It's there that he meets Antonio, who works on a commercial fishing boat. Antonio is played by Antonio Altamirano. The men are gay, and are attracted to each other.

The plots plays itself out as the men come to terms with their relationship, prejudice against gays, and the fact that Lucas is leaving Chile to study in Montreal.

This is a film that cries out to be seen on a large screen because the Chilean landscape is so beautiful. However, it's a movie about relationships, so it worked well enough on the small screen.

We saw Los Fuertes via ImageOut, the wonderful Rochester LGBTQ Film Festival. (Virtual this year.) The movie has a solid IMDb rating of 7.2. I though it was even better than that, and rated it 9.