IMDb RATING
6.8/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
A young Finnish man returns for the summer to help renovate his father's lake house. He meets and befriends Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, and the two spend the summer bonding.A young Finnish man returns for the summer to help renovate his father's lake house. He meets and befriends Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, and the two spend the summer bonding.A young Finnish man returns for the summer to help renovate his father's lake house. He meets and befriends Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, and the two spend the summer bonding.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 2 wins & 11 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
A Moment in the Reeds is a well written, well directed and well acted story, full of sparking tensions, alluring contrasts and painful realities. The story of an intense connection, forged in an uncomfortable, imperfect setting, is deeply affecting and compelling. As the characters navigate their blossoming relationship, they are forced to confront deep-rooted issues in their lives, the differences and similarities of their personal situations, and a reality that the bubble of bliss they occupy is as transient as it is passionate. This is no PG feature - the sex scenes sizzle; the leads have chemistry that could set asbestos on fire. This is a film not afraid to dive in and own its convictions. Well worth a watch.
(post review-reading rant) Too many IMDBers are projecting their politics, hangups and ideals onto this film. Watch the furking film, people, instead of reinterpreting it through an Instagram filter. Sometimes I think too many people live in their sanitised PC white-bread InstaGrindr bubble and don't actually realise that different people engage with life and the world around them in different ways, and derive meaning and pleasure quite validly whilst operating within this "different" frame. The queer community is becoming a pasteurised, limp-dicked anaemic clone of its superior antecedent. If you want an idealised fantasy tailored to your over-sanitised sensibilities, go hire a celibate, gender ambivalent, emotional support quasi-romantic de-triggered missionary-sex-bot (/post review reading rant). Have a nice day.
(post review-reading rant) Too many IMDBers are projecting their politics, hangups and ideals onto this film. Watch the furking film, people, instead of reinterpreting it through an Instagram filter. Sometimes I think too many people live in their sanitised PC white-bread InstaGrindr bubble and don't actually realise that different people engage with life and the world around them in different ways, and derive meaning and pleasure quite validly whilst operating within this "different" frame. The queer community is becoming a pasteurised, limp-dicked anaemic clone of its superior antecedent. If you want an idealised fantasy tailored to your over-sanitised sensibilities, go hire a celibate, gender ambivalent, emotional support quasi-romantic de-triggered missionary-sex-bot (/post review reading rant). Have a nice day.
I truly don't understand the negative reviews i've read here. This was a spectacularly beautiful movie about a brief, but heartwarming encounter. Slow paced, that's true, but it wouldn't have worked any other way. The chemistry between these two boys elevated the whole to an even higher level. You rarely see this kind of genuine chemistry in gay interest films. So the movie had an open ending... Get over it. Nothing in life is ever wrapped up in a neat little bundle for you.
This is a film about two young guys oppressed by the society, and their attempts to struggle free. It is an emotional journey to feel and be touched by it.
...captured like spiders' silk on film. Apart from the slow start, there is nothing negative about this production. I don't even see the four people in the film as acting; it's as if the camera is simply there. Not boring, no miscasting, beautifully shot and directed. So gentle, so tastefully done. So very different to the stuff Hollywood churns out these days. Stuff that is instantly forgettable. This one lingers like wisps of vapour from a long-ago summer.
I love everything about this movie. I rarely buy dvds these days, but this one is an exception.
I love everything about this movie. I rarely buy dvds these days, but this one is an exception.
Given the fact that it has overall a high score here, the reviews are often very bad. Like so much in life this makes no sense. The two young lead actors are good, and the sexuality that develops between them is convincing in its realism, and its poetic beauty. A young Finn comes ' home ' to Finland to spend his holiday with his father and in the summer house they partly live in there is a young Syrian refugee helping with refurbishments. At first I found this contrived but then all films are to a certain extent, but my reaction changed when the sexual and emotional tension develops through a long evening discussion about difference and identity. This long development led quite naturally into a passion that reminded me of ' Les Amants ' and had the same quality of surprising revelation in sex so rarely seen on the screen. To those who read this remember sexuality and desire are both equal, heterosexually and homosexually. This film transcends the often ghetto feeling of gay lives as depicted in the cinema, even among the best films and I watched it with the sort of reverence due to a film that is made up mostly of silence and the nature of a beautiful Northern country. But the copy I had was full of subtitles that were not that faithful ( a lot of the film is spoken in English between the lovers and the father ) as the young Syrian speaks English along with both the son and the lover. I am late in reviewing this and I have no reason why as I have seen it twice, and I repeat it is a slow ( in the best way ) experience filled with melancholy, the transitory nature of people who cannot truly unite for a future together and above all a poetry of place and sound only seen in the greatest of cinematic experiences. A film to be seen much more than once for all viewers , hetero, bi and homosexual.
Did you know
- TriviaThe director himself 'states'*: "My main objective in making th[is] film was to challenge Finland into acknowledging the diversity that exists within it - to confront the homogeny of the mainstream with the difference that has been marginalised as 'un-Finnish' for so long. I wanted to make a film that was Finnish and un-Finnish at the same time .. to stage this opening up of traditional Finnish society by these characters usually relegated to the margins .. it is simultaneously a love letter and a critique .. [and in his concluding paragraph] to take a wider view; I would like to think that th[is] film can be seen as representing most things antithetical to Trumpism and Brexitism: freedom of movement, international solidarity and not only tolerance but respect for ethnic, sexual and religious diversity." [*from his own 'statement' on inside cover of Finnish DVD issue.]
- GoofsAt the 1:37:03 mark, when Tareq is angrily packing his belongings.
- How long is A Moment in the Reeds?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- A Moment in the Reeds
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content