Les Amours de Beyto

In this flick, we see a clash of cultures...conservative Islamic versus Western liberal. Beyto, a manly, muscly gay, young Turk living in Switzerland is forced to conform to Islamic family values. He gets married, but not without a strong resistance. Mike, his German boyfriend isn't very understanding and acts irrationally, cruelly and inappropriately towards Beyto after he returns, with wife in tow, to Switzerland. At that point, the audience loses any interest in Mike and wishes Beyto would find a worthy boyfriend. We are handed an unconventional ending, whereby everyone seems to be satisfied.....but for how long?

Good acting and script, but found weakness in Mike' character.

A swimmer (Beyto) falls in love with his coach (Mike) and vice versa, but we are in foreign lands. First Switzerland where they meet, swim and love and then Turkey where Beyto is forced to return to as this is where he is from, where his family lives and where he is compelled to marry a woman and where what he is, gay, is an abomination. He does all he can to get out of it, but fails and ultimately marries a charming, beautiful and an eventual open-minded woman who has been a long time friend. There is much drama, anguish and arguing, but it's well written and the acting by everyone is just about perfect. In a way, it's kind of a Turkish rom-com by the time it ends though it has some very serious things on its mind throughout.

The film centres around a culture crash, between living in Turkey (west) and Switzerland (east), in regard to homosexuality, forced marriage, and cultural peer pressure/oppression.

The script has some flaws, and isn't deep, but is enjoyable and still relevant and thought-provoking.

The scenes are pleasantly shot and transmit some authenticity, specially the scenes in Turkey.

The main actors are attractive, although there was some lack of skill amongst the cast, which left me concerned earlier, but it did improve. Although only a few characters get some development/growth, we do get to see their background, which can lead to some understanding on their views.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most was also the soundtrack, as the music is good, without crashing into pop stereotypes, and is very well applied to the scenes, amplifying the culture differences.

The segment in Turkey is really strong and I wished the whole movie was just this story. But the main character is very whiney and insufferable, and his Swiss boyfriend is so poorly drawn that he comes off as an unintentional misogynist when things get complicated. Without giving anything away, I was also not a fan of the implausible ending. There are a lot of promising elements in this, but they sadly don't add up for a number of reasons.

A sort of patchwork. Two young men, very different, mates , in love. Two different cultures. A wedding. And the challenges front to the young men. A nice film, first for the effort to convince but remaining a work made with patches , each patch being more interesting alone, more than as part of a film who looks for demonstrate too much. One of nice virtues - the work of Ecem Aydin as Seher. Maybe, the end , to But, sure, a love/ coming out film careful crafted than defines Beyto as decent one.