Denis Liakhov | Les corneilles blanches (The White Crows) / 2023

the conspiracy

by Douglas Messerli

Denis Liakhov and Arthur Cahn (screenplay), Denis Liakhov (director) Les corneilles blanches (The White Crows) / 2023 [17 minutes]

 

In this simply plotted but beautifully filmed and acted short movie, Russian-born director Denis Liakhov (working in France), tells the story of the evening of the return to his small home town by Vlad (Vladislav Botnaru).

    Vlad, who has been attending the university in Moscow, has come home on vacation to see his parents, only to be shanghaied by his brother Arsène (Adam Carage) and his friends Serioga and Liokha, who are intent on celebrating Vlad’s return by visiting a local spa where they will drink heavily and be sexually serviced by a prostitute, Kristina (Yulia Antoshchuk).

   What Vlad’s macho brother doesn’t perceive is that Vlad is now gay and wants no part of their machinations, but Arsène and his friends simply ignore the young man’s pleas to take him to his parent’s house and he is forced to enter into their rowdy drunken spree, particularly after his brother takes him aside and makes it clear that he and his friends have arranged this special evening just for his return, his comments also conveying something of a threat.

      The prostitute shows up, with Vlad’s brother insisting that his younger sibling go first. Vlad has already retreated to the pool, but the girl, not easily intimidated, enters it and begins to fondle him. He quietly begs her to stop, the others watching on and curious why he doesn’t seem to be more receptive.

       I should perhaps interrupt this narrative to reiterate just how homophobic Russians are generally and remind the reader how Putin and others have basically banned most LGBTQ organizations while removing almost all rights to protect gays. Vlad’s own brother, we later learn, has hinted that if he found that his little brother was a fag, he’d kill him.

      Finally, Vlad is able to whisper into the girl’s ear that her appearance is not the problem, but that he is gay. Almost immediately, she perceives the situation and pulls him away to a back room where the others presume they are going to have sex. Arsène is finally proud of his little brother.

     Meanwhile, the two, prostitute and university boy, in an unspoken conspiracy, sit on and later lay in the bed discussing their various situations. Kristina, who reveals her real name as really being Anna, at first castigates the beautiful young gay boy for feeling superior to her and looking down on her actions. She’s a tough woman, however, and after several denials that he in any way feels superior, she admits that she is also attending the local university, studying history. She has sex with just such rowdy men—she’s seen far worse than her brother and his friends—just to make enough for her tuition and other costs. A lot of her friends, she admits, do the same thing.

      At another point the two discover that they have attended the same school, and shared the same teacher. Although neither remembers one another from those years, it nonetheless creates a bond between them, particularly now that Vlad perceives that Anna is herself a kind of outsider.

     But by this time, however, Vlad’s brother is already pounding at the door, waiting to take his turn with the prostitute.

      Soon after Vlad leaves the room, Arsène eagerly entering it. The other friends appear too drunk by this time to be able to make use of the girl’s services.

      As Kristina/Anna goes to leave, Vlad accompanies her to the car, asking if she might drop him off at his parent’s house. Arsène stands at the door of the spa, begging his brother to return to the group, as Vlad gets into the car which speeds off.

      Clearly, Arsène suspects something is not right, and it is apparent that there will be some explaining to do. But at least the gay boy has escaped for another night, now feeling most unwelcome, surely not very safe, and clearly disgusted by the behavior of his own brother, ready to return to Moscow at the earliest opportunity while recognizing that he, along with Anna, are  indeed “white crows,” the Russian phrase to describe a misfit or oddball, someone who doesn’t fit in.

 

Los Angeles, September 23, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).