No Hard Feelings - Le monde est à nous

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 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.

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.

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.