Ori Aharon | Dolfin Megumi (Rubber Dolphin) / 2018

who’s on top?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ori Aharon (screenwriter and director) Dolfin Megumi (Rubber Dolphin) / 2018 [28 minutes]

 

A young man (Chen Hefetz) living in Tel Aviv brings a gay pick-up back to his apartment. They kiss and suddenly are transported into something nearing sexual ecstasy, as the visitor (Omri Laron) suddenly presuming the other is a “bottom,” begins to rim the first.

      When the first asks if he has a condom, he takes one out, but claims he can’t get it on. In fact, he may have attempted to put it on backwards. “Every time I put on a condom, I feel like my dick turns into a rubber dolphin.” 

       The second begins again, but it causes some pain to the first young man and they pause.

      “When did you last have sex without a condom?” asks the first.

      “On Passover.”

      “With someone you knew?”

      “Yeah, I guy I was dating.”

      “Have you been tested since?

      “Yes.” 

     So it’s a go for condomless sex, as the two enjoy a highly pleasurable experience as the first moves to the top and inserts the other’s penis.

    Their after-sex conversation is basically about the roles they presumed for each other. The first young man declares that when they met he thought the second was a “bottom,” in response to which the second man insists that he never bottoms since it hurts too much. The first comments that although it might hurt at first the pain gradually diminishes and you begin to feel wonderful with the very idea of having someone inside of you.

         Indeed, he serves as both bottom and top, declaring as someone who is often fucked he is even better at knowing how to please those he fucks. When he plays the top, he declares, he’s very self-conscious, wanting to make an effort for him to lose himself in the sex as he does. Still the second man is not to be convinced, determined, so it appears, to maintain his role as a top.

         They also talk about their first times, always the best claims the first man, a fellow soldier who taught him so very much about his own body. “After that, I kept looking for guys who would give me that feeling. And every time I had good sex, I’d fall in love.”

         Is he hinting that he may possibly fall in love again? It seems like they might make a good couple.

         The other is more cynical: “Your ass fell in love.”

       Soon the first man is attempting to show his new friend how joyful being the recipient truly is. “When you have a dick up your ass you’re not alone in this world,” he argues. “Feeling someone inside of you. That’s something most men don’t experience.”

        The second is still not convinced.

 

      They shower, play records, and the second boy dances miming the song by a female singer. They dance together. They look nice as a pair. And the first is delighted when the second asks if he can stay over for the night. The second even tells the first that he could have beautiful children, assuring him that he will soon find real love.

         Later, near morning, as the second sleeps the first awakens him in an attempt to gently engage him in anal sex, this time with him as the one who fucks. He very gently takes him through the steps as he engages, explaining when and how to relax. But the second young man cannot get beyond the initial pain and demands the other stop. Soon after, he rises, dresses, and quickly leaves.

        It is clear that if they were to have a relationship, it would be a rather traditional one, him as the top (the dominant), the other as the bottom (like a submissive wife). This is not the open and exploring person who our first young man has been seeking. Gay men often simply parrot the patriarchal system from which they originally fought so hard to free themselves, without fully exploring the terrain they have opened up.

 

Los Angeles, April 23, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2024).