Sem Ressentimentos

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.

The themes in this film are well known to me. I live in a Muslim country so I know the attitudes towards gay men that are overtly displayed in contradiction to the enormous prevalence of secret man on man action that is often carried out by the very same guys who are being so disparaging. I also worked with refugees for some years in the nineties in the UK and have seen the crushing of spirits caused by refusals of asylum applications.

Parvis and Amon make a handsome couple but their relationship is shot through with the discrepancies mentioned above. Amon dare not let his mates know what's going on. His sister is fine with the issue as are Parvis's parents.

The scenes of birthdays, parties, clubs, young life are all what we would see any young people enjoying. These youngsters just want the freedoms we have in the West and that are denied to them in their own country. They would be assets to Germany. Indeed, Parvis is, as he has a German passport.

I found the dialogue, even from the more minor characters, to be totally appropriate and relevant.

However, coming through all this is a nostalgia for "back home". As an emigré, I have it. How much stronger it must be for those forced to leave for whatever reason.

This was ninety minutes I certainly didn't regret in the slightest.

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.

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.