GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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The
String TLA
Releasing, Director: Screenplay: Starring: Unrated, 93 min. |
Coming
Home
Once upon a time, a positive love story between two men (or two women) was a cause for celebration. This scenario has become so common that today's queer filmmakers need to find new ways to make this material fresh or risk getting lost in the shuffle. The String (Le Fil, 2009), the debut film from director Mehdi Ben Attia, mostly rises to the challenge. The gay love story is a familiar one but the script by Attia and Olivier Laneurie touches on relevant themes such as cultural and class divides in order to keep things interesting. |
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In
a nice parallel, we learn that Malik's mother also once broke taboos as
a young European woman marrying an Arab. |
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Malik
(Antonin Stahly) is a thirty-something architect working in France. He
returns to his native Tunisia to spend time with his recently widowed
mother. Sara, his mother, is played by Italian screen legend Claudia Cardinale
(Fellini's 8 1/2 and Visconti's The Leopard are just two
of the highlights of her distinguished career). She's a bit on the overbearing
side and wants her son to settle down permanently in Tunisia and get married.
But Malik is, of course, gay and doesn't take kindly to his mother's attempts
to fix him up with a nice native girl. Malik's therapist has advised him
to come clean about his sexuality to his family but he just doesn't seem
to find the right moment. Complicating matters, Malik has fallen for his
Mother's hunky handyman, Bilal (
Bilal
is also a stranger in a strange land. He has also recently returned home
to Tunisia (like Malik, he spent many years in France) and is trying to
fit in. He works as a handyman in exchange for lodgings in a bungalow
on Sara's bourgeois estate and, for that reason, he initially tries to
ignore the attraction he feels towards her son. When they finally do it,
there are full blown fireworks. They enjoy one of the sweetest kissing
scenes I've ever seen on film. Third act drama is supplied when Mother
finds the two of them in bed.
Much
of the film is funny. The audience is told not to take a lot of this seriously
by campy, melodramatic music that crosses 
Other
plot strands include Malik agreeing to marry his lesbian friend so that
her baby will have a father and Mom will shut up already about grandchildren.
Much of The String seems to
be about breaking taboos. Malik picks up a stranger and they have sex
in an alley. He also has sex with a male cousin at one point too. When
he and Bilal become involved, the situation mirrors Lady Chatterly's
Lover in that Malik is also crossing class lines by doing it with
a "servant." The tone to all of this has been light but it should be pointed
out that Malik is getting away with all this in an Islamic country that
doesn't have high marks from Amnesty International for its record on human
rights.
Visual
symbols abound in this tale of a man's attempts to cut his mother's apron
strings. As a child, Malik used to spin because he imagined himself entangled
in string. As an adult, he suffers from panic attacks. During moments
of stress, he sees a long string hanging off his shirt that is connected
to his mother. These moments are a tad obvious and forced, but they look
cool. Director Attia has a flair for offbeat images. There's a terrific
sight gag when Malik gives Bilal a ride on his motorbike while wearing
a helmet that is three times bigger than it needs to be - effectively
draining all possible romanticism from the comic scene. 
The
acting is terrific, especially Cardinale. Kechiouche (Bilal) has previously
played hunks in