Jakub Wenda | Tam, gdzie płaczą ptaki (Where the Birds Cry) / 2023

a summer romance

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jakub Wenda (screenplay and director) Tam, gdzie płaczą ptaki (Where the Birds Cry) / 2023 [15 minutes]

 

The sentiments of Polish director Jakub Wenda’s short film Where the Birds Cry have been expressed since the earliest days of cinema, particularly in gay films. But 14-year-old Szymon’s near-total desperation for having to remain in his dreary seaside village is the near-perfect expression of his youthful angst, representing the desires of all young gay people who feel trapped in worlds in which there seem to be no others like him.

 

    Szymon (Borys Otawa) might be described to be in a near permanent pout, as he hangs out with other school mates, keeping a short distance from them and hugging himself into a something like a rock of resentful isolation. His schoolmates, it’s clear have given up at even trying to involve in their silly heterosexual folics.

     Suddenly against the permanently gray sky where even the birds seem to constantly cry out in desolating, he spots a ray of sun on the strand in the form of his childhood friend Filip (Jakub Gąsior), whose businessman father has long taken his family elsewhere. Unlike Filip, the handsome boy was obviously a good friend of all the locals, and is greeted with great pleasure, as the group begin drinking and playing games of the spin the bottle.

      What would such a film be without the bottle, now in Filip’s court, pointing to his old friend. Dared to kiss him on the neck, Filip puts his hand between Szymon’s flesh and his lips, perhaps just to save his friend some embarrassment, but disappointing the expectant boy.

 

      Later, however, Filip runs after Szymon, giving him a proper hug, with the unhappy kid expressing first his wonderment that his friend has returned—his father has come for business and Filip has tagged along just to see his old classmates—now shares his envy for Filip’s having been

able to leave and travel. “I always thought somehow that we would leave here together,” he laments. Szymon’s greatest desire, he explains, is to go on a safari.

      Before long the two have renewed their old friendship, with horse-play and giggles, and the sharing of ear-buds to listen to a favorite piece of music. But they are not children any longer, and both know there may be something else between them. Just watching Filip change out of his underwear after swimming leads to heavy breathing for the young boy, and he cannot resist stealing his friend’s underpants.

      One day Filip forces his friend to close his eyes and he leads him to a “mysterious” location; when Szymon opens them, the boys are surrounded by cows. See, you have gone on your safari, argues Filip, insisting that he chase after them and try to ride of heifer.

      At another point, Szymon takes his friend back to an old decayed building where they used to hang out as younger boys. And then he finally turns to Filip and, almost with hesitation, moves into a kiss, which he returned. Both boys are clearly in love.

       But, of course, this is only a temporary visit; Filip’s father is soon leaving.

 

    At a goodbye celebration, Filip dances with some of the school girls, while Szymon sits curled up into his stone-like fortress of self. In the very next instance, however, Filip moves toward his friend stretching out an open hand which Szymon, at first not even comprehending what the gesture suggests, takes it, his friend pulling him up for a dance.

    In the hall of both elder and younger heterosexual couples, these boys declare their love by holding one another tightly and dancing. No one responds negatively, even though Poland is a strongly homophobic country.

    The film ends with the now lonely Szymon once more on the beach, scrunched up into his rock-like position, waiting, clearly waiting for his time to leave. But at least now he knows that he is or at least was once loved. He too now has had a summer romance.

 

Los Angeles, May 2, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).