no firm ground
by Douglas Messerli
Pablo Brandao and Jake Graf
(screenplay), Jake Graf (director) Chance / 2015 [17 minutes]
The elderly and grossly overweight
Trevor Bunting (Clifford Hume) has become almost agoraphobic since his
companion Doris’ death, sitting in his small apartment without even answering
his daughter’s urgent telephone calls, wondering about his health. He walks in
the park with a floral bouquet, presenting it not to a grave but to a bench in
the park he’s officially adopted with a metal plaque in honor of his wife.
While Trevor sits there one morning, another man suddenly lifts his foot
up to bench to tie his shoe, Trevor pushing the man’s foot away without
explaining his reasons. The man (played by the director Graf) curses him and
walks away, but later as Trevor attempts to relax in the sun returns with
another yob, both of them shouting and screaming at him for his possessiveness
of the bench. Frozen in place, Trevor is nearly terrorized until suddenly out
of nowhere a heavyset man, Amir Abbas (Abs) shouts the two ruffians down and
frightens them off.
Trevor, still terrorized, reacts in dread as his savior sits down beside
him. And when the man asks him in Urdu if he is ok, he suddenly stands, grabs
his flowers, and runs off, relieved to be back in the protection of his own
house.
Amir, who a very brief clip at the
beginning of the film we have witnessed sitting up in bed after having a
nightmare wherein, in the midst of a seeming battle, he cannot save an unseen
friend calling out his name, returns home also, hugging his young boy to him,
his wife for a moment looking on with joy. But as the boy runs off, her face
quickly changes, as she asks: “How long are you going to keep pushing me away?”
He begs her, Zara (Amale Mohamed), to leave him alone.
The next morning, we see Trevor putting
on a light pink tie, a far different look from the dreary way he dressed the
previous day. Refusing again to answer his daughter’s telephone pleas he
returns once more to the bench where Amir again appears, holding out his hand
with the offering of his name as Trevor more cautiously takes it and provides
his own. He moves a small bag away so that Amir might sit, which he does.
Taking up a cup of tea, Trevor suddenly pours it out into another cup
and offers it to uncomfortably to his new guest, Amir responding again in Urdu
that he cannot, he’s fasting. Trevor takes the cup back looking rather
suspiciously at is new friend. And almost as suddenly Amir stands again, saying
he has to go but that he will see Trevor tomorrow. Of course, Trevor cannot
comprehend a word of what he’s saying.
Back at Amir’s home he and Zara once
again share dark glances of accusation and regret. Theirs is clearly a
relationship on the verge of collapsing.
The next morning, wearing a polka-dot burgundy tie, Trevor again greets
Amir, making a place for him on the bench. This time they both shyly glance at
each other when they believe the other is not looking, as a gay couple, one of
them shirtless, saunter by. Finally, they catch each other’s eyes, as Amir
slightly mocks the saunter of the two, both of them laughing, increasing as
they discover something to share with one another.
In the very next frame, they are walking
down a path with Trevor pointing to objects and nontangible entities such as
the sky, asking to be told the Urdu name, which Amir gladly provides.
He’s delighted to learn the word for
pigeon.
At home, Zara is serving up Amir’s
dinner. Almost immediately the camera cuts again to another such scene with
Trevor asking for Amir to name things, an activity that seems to joyfully
engage the two men. Back at the table, Amir reaches for Zara’s arm as she,
surprised the gesture, smiles.
In the next scene Amir offers a gift to Trevor of a colorful striped
muffler. Waking up in his bed with a smile on his face, Trevor again ignores
the message on his machine from his daughter, who is now becoming truly worried
because of his unreturned calls.
The editing of British filmmaker Jake Graf’s film is quite excellent, as
we quickly fall into a rhythm of interlinks between the two men, who out of
nowhere have found something in each that has become meaningful, perhaps even
essential in their lives.
Trevor finally picks up the phone to make a call. And a moment later we
observe the two men on their bench joyfully watching two young boys run in
circles around them. Something has shifted in the way Trevor now sees the
world. But at the very moment Amir has a horrible vision again, almost breaking
down into tears as, in answer to Trevor’s question of what’s wrong, he
responds, “Nassir, my love,” revealing that long in the past Amir has been
unable to save a friend whom he deeply loved, obviously someone with whom he
had a deep relationship, whether or not it was homosexual.
Trevor puts his hand to the man’s shoulder but resists resting it there
as Amir rushes off in despair over his “daymare.”
Back at home, he kisses his son as Zara once more puts out the food upon
the table. Amir has brought her a wrapped gift. In Urdu he comments, “I’m
sorry, I know it wasn’t your fault…I just miss Nassar.” She answers, “I know,
brother, but Nassar will always be with you,” suddenly alerting us to the fact
that she is not his wife, but his sister. And that like Trevor he also has not
been able to get over the death of his companion.
The very next moment, however, the film shifts yet again as Amir returns
home to find Zara in tears. They have received a letter from the British
government, but we do not know what it says.
Trevor is again waiting on a bench, but this time a radical change, not
on Doris’ bench but another a few yards away from the other upon another path.
When he sees Amir arrive and sit down on the old bench, he signals him to join
him in what he describes as “a time for a change.” But there is far more
frightening change as Amir hands him over the government letter.
Reading it, Trevor chuckles, “They’re
sending you home. You can come back again.” But Amir’s face reveals it is not
that easy. Bending over, he pulls ups his shirt to reveal the permanent welts
of a whip of torture. And we realize at that moment that perhaps Amir and
Nassar were torn apart because of their sexuality and punished, Nassar unable
to survive.
This time Trevor, pulls the shirt back
down, puts his hand firmly upon Amir’s shoulder, takes his hand and kisses it,
finally drawing his head onto his shoulder with an expression of consolation
and love.
In the very next frame, they are head-to-head with Trevor confessing
that he loves Amir. “You gave me hope. You gave me life again,” both in tears
so that we might imagine this was a sad farewell, particularly when we hear in
the background a voice barking the words, “Mr. Abbas, if you could please just
say your goodbyes. We really must go now.”
When the camera pulls back, we see the couple in formal dress, Trevor
made out with pink accoutrements, Amir with pink lacings in his shirt. The
goodbyes are to Trevor’s daughter, to Amir’s sister and her son. The two, now
married men, enter their limousine decked out with pink ribbons and drive off a
fairytale world which only cinema can provide.
As one commentator observed, he did not know if Graf had truly studied
the British extradition laws sufficiently, but it doesn’t really matter. For
Graf has made his own reality in a beautifully constructed form that far
outweighs its length. Indeed, other than Ray Yeung’s later 2019 film Suk Suk
(Uncle), this is perhaps the best film I have seen about the gay
life of aging men, who fall in love not simply because of sexual desire but for
the emotional and spiritually personal commitments the two have made to one
another. In Graf’s film we discover that in charting this new territory, there
is no firm ground.
Los Angeles, November 24, 2022
Reprinted from World Cinema
Review (November 2022).
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