Irasj Asanti | Knus meg (Break Me) / 2018

in a cage

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nina Anderson and Irasj Asanti (screenplay), Irasj Asanti (director) Knus meg (Break Me) / 2018 [15 minutes]

 

The title of Norwegian director—born in Norway of Kurdish Iranian parents—Irasj Asanti’s Break Me is a blatant challenge to the forces which would take his central character, Iranian-born Mansour (Singh Bajwa) back into a world of complete control over his behavior and sexuality.

     Mansour is a cage-boxer, a brutal fighter coached by his own father, Farzad (played by the director). Despite his traditional family, however, Mansour—like many a young immigrant—has adapted comfortably to his new Norwegian homeland. He regularly parties and has fallen in love with a young boy Andreas (Fredrik Skogsrud), who also is his sparring partner.

      To please his father, however, and perhaps to prove to himself that he is merely bisexual, as opposed to being gay, Mansour keeps sleeping with women, pulling him away from his secret lover’s life.

     Even worse, Farzad has determined that his son will marry a Koranic-educated woman, Sjasmin (Ronahi Afsari), without allowing Mansour any say in the matter.

     In the cage, the young man increasingly takes out his anger on his opponents, violently beating them beyond the simple fighting dominance the cage boxing demands. Several times he has to be

pulled off his opponents. It also seems to himself be exploring cutting and other self-destructive acts. At one point Andreas notices the scars from the cuts Mansour has made in the side of his torso.

 

    Yet his friends appear to recognize Mansour’s attraction to Andreas, and even good-naturedly tease him in the locker room about staring at his ass. His world at home, as opposed to his relationship to Norwegian society in general are oppositional, and the struggle to find a balance is nearly impossible.

      When his father observes his son and Andreas on the streets mock-wrestling, recognizes the joy they take in touching one another, and sees them entering a tanning-salon together, he grows more than suspicious. Consulting with his religious leader, he decides to take his son’s passport away and force him into marriage.

       By this point, it appears that Mansour is even willing to kill himself as he stands on a pedestrian bridge over a highway, leaning into what might be a fall or jump. Andreas reports that he’s applied to a police academy in Northern Norway, and assures Mansour that he can get him a job there as well.

      But it is too late. Mansour demands that Andreas stop leaving him messages, and when his lover suggests he’ll talk with his father, Mansour grows violent. The cultures do not comprehend each other. There is no talking with a traditional Iranian father. When Farzad sees a picture of Andreas on his son’s cellphone, he confiscates it and demands his son come sit on the couch with him and his mother. He is told that his mother is soon packing his suitcase, that he will be returning to Iran with his father since his grandfather is terribly ill.

      Looking out his window, he sees his friend Andreas begging to see him, but Mansour no longer has any hope. He pulls down the black blind. His parents have broken him.

 

Los Angeles, February 9, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2024).