Marialy Rivas | Blokes (Blocks) / 2010

sex and politics

by Douglas Messerli

 

Rodrigo Bellott and Marialy Rivas (screenplay, based on a story by Pedro Lemebel), Marialy Rivas (director) Blokes (Blocks) / 2010 [15 minutes]

 

Both the characters of Marialy Rivas’ Blocks and the director herself, in different ways, are brave souls: her characters, living in Chile under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in a world where even expressing human love is a dangerous thing, and Rivas for daring in this era of pedophilic panic to explore the subject of pre-adolescent homosexuality and his love for an older boy.

     The boy Luchito (Alfonso David) is not only at the age where young boys begin to wonder about sex, but is precociously aware of his own difference. Living in the blocks of urban apartments, Luchito looks out every day across the way into the window of a handsome 16-year-old Manuel Tapia (Pedro Campus), who sits on his bed, half naked, a site of absolute delight to the younger boy as he dresses for school. Luchito’s mother, a home-seamstress spends most of her day gossiping with her customers about their neighbors’ problems, a young girl becoming pregnant whose is having an affair with another girl, etc. She gives no thought to her own son’s sexual problems; in her mind he is clearly too young.

     The bus is crowded, and the older boy moves in behind him, leaning close against his body, his crotch riding Luchito’s ass, for much of the ride Luchito in suspended pleasure until the bus lurches forward, breaking the two apart, the time having arrived for Luchito to get off.

      Later that afternoon at home he attempts to masturbate to the memory of the experience; but his mother knocks on the door, uncomprehending why he has locked himself off, foils any possible release. Manuel, meanwhile, plays soccer in tight shorts with the other boys below, only increasing Luchito’s frustrations as he watches from above. Later, surrounded by girls and boys, Manuel puts his arms around one of the girls, pissing Luchito off. Obviously, he’d like his fantasy to be free of female complications.

     That night, it’s even worse, as Manuel brings a girl into his room, the two beginning to have intercourse with the light still on, Luchito watching half in delight, half in disgust. As she goes down on him, head out of sight, the boy begins to masturbate as he watches Manuel's expressions of pleasure. But suddenly, standing up, his girlfriend switches off the light.

     In frustration yet again, Luchito pulls out a large flashlight, turning it toward the dark window, spotting the now naked girl attempting to cover herself as she refuses to remain in the room, her flight halting their sexual pleasure as well—perhaps unintentionally on Luchito’s part but with some pleasure nonetheless since he now has Pedro all to himself. Pedro can be seen leaning out his window, ponderously smoking. 

     A day or so later, we hear helicopters roaring above the same complex, police entering apartment after apartment ordering everyone out. We see police pulling Manuel from his bed, and Luchito’s mother pulls him out of his own bed, insisting they must go. Down in the yard it is complete chaos, police with machine guns sorting out young men, shooting others dead seemingly at random as they title them communists. Manuel, his father, and others are made to stand with their hands beside their heads. Luchito, with a blanket around his shoulders, seeing his friend standing in only his underwear attempts to cover Manuel with the blanket, but the police immediately move in, pulling him away to demand that he too put his hands behind his head. A state of siege has been declared across the country, so we hear from a radio,.

     The next evening, Luchito is reading, and his mother demands he turn out the light. At nearly the same moment, he notices the lights go on and off in Manuel’s apartment. He sees Manuel at the window and the lights on and off repeating in Manuel’s apartment. Without even thinking Luchito picks up his flashlight and shines it upon Manuel’s body.

 

     Taking of his shirt and pulling down his shorts, Manuel begins to masturbate fully in the window, Luchito all eyes, as the older boy continues through to ejaculation.

     The next morning, as his mother sews, he hears the latest gossip. Manuel has been taken away by the police. “They say he was making signals, sending out clandestine messages with a light.” We know in hindsight, that many taken away in Pinochet’s era were never heard from again.

      Luchito goes over the window to see that the apartment across is empty, the place in chaos. Whether he feels guilty or not is not expressed on his youthful face. If nothing else, however, he now knows that sex is not just confusing but possibly deadly—as it is still in several countries around the world.

    Rivas’ film is one of the most remarkable of short cinematic works, combining as it does, near complete innocence and the knowing mania of power packed like a homemade bomb into a short cinematic work portraying how childlike innocence can easily explode into adult horror and hate.

 

Los Angeles, May 30, 2023