Sven J. Matten | Out Now / 2005

revelation

by Douglas Messerli

 

Tina Schulte and Renatus Töpke (screenplay), Sven J. Matten (director) Out Now / 2005 [20 minutes]

 

This movie, by German filmmaker Sven J. Matten filmed in a picturesque Bavarian resort town, is a rather predictable portrait of a young 16-year-old boy in the process of coming out. One of the most difficult aspects of being gay in a small city or village is the feeling of difference, which is what most disturbing to Tom Beyer (Dennis Prinz). The feeling homophobia in this village, moreover, is palpable, Tom being regularly harassed by his classmates as in so very many movies about this issue, but even worse being pulled away by his mother from the candy kiosk because of the general perception that the cute boy behind the counter is gay.

     In truth, Tom not only realizes he is gay, despite his school arguments that he is no different from the others, but regularly communicates as Luckystar16 on the internet with a couple of other gay boys or men, one who goes by the name of Creator. As he admits to Creator, he’d love to ask the boy at the kiosk out for coffee.

     Creator himself keeps talking about “being the others, the outsiders,” and Tom is tired of that designation. At school, he has a good friend in a black girl, clearly also an outsider, Vanessa, but he is tired of even her suggesting she likes him for his differences from the other boys. And one day when he again meets up with the hostile hall-way gang, who the day before have all taken their towels to him in the shower, he grabs Vanessa (Jennifer Schmid) her and forces her against the wall as he kisses her, a kind a mock-rape for which she has great difficult in forgiving him. As she herself later tells him, even the others would not have treated her that way.

      But obviously being lonely, the role of the school outsider is simply too much for Tom, as after that incident, he decides to attend a Hip-Hop party at a local club.

      Even there he finds himself almost uncontrollably attracted to the DJ, evidently a notorious hip-hop celebrity. He makes up with Vanessa, who is also in attendance, but still has no one at the party with whom to dance or talk.

      Wandering down a hall in the midst of the party, he suddenly pulls open a door, commanding no entry, only to discover one of leaders of the bullying high school boys, Nikias (Veit Messerschmidt), scion of one the most noted political families in Bavaria, fucking his young Turkish schoolmate, Erdogan (David Langer).

      Suddenly, in that moment, the world opens up to Tom as he just as quickly perceives that Nikias is also the figure Creator on his internet chats, and in that realization recognizes he is not so very different from the others as he might have suspected.

      Both Nikias and Erdogan fear the consequences if Tom were suddenly to spread the news around town. It would mean the end of Nikias’ father’s political career and that Erdogan could no longer attend his mosque.

     But Tom clearly has no intentions in sharing his new discovery with the world, as he marches directly to the candy kiosk to ask the cute blond boy beyond the counter it if he might fancy getting a coffee with him when he’s free.

 

    It may be wonderful that the writers of this short film, Tina Schulte and Renatus Töpke, found a nice solution to allay Tom’s despair; but alas most of us don’t ever discover the sexuality whistling through our high school halls until years later—in my own case—if ever. And having now discovered that some of his tormentors are gay does not necessarily mean that the bullying will stop, particularly if Nikias and Erdogan must continue playing along with their heterosexual homophobic friends just to keep their sexual desires silenced.

      Tom is now, however, infused with a new sense of empowerment. And he knows, if nothing else, that he is no longer alone.

      What I keep hoping for, other than the fantasy fairy films such as Sissy Frenchfry (also a short film of 2005) that with the increasing recognition of gay life around the world, the locker room bullies might tire of their torturing of others they feel are different from themselves. Today in the USA, however, with the newfound hatred of the right, it appears to be getting worse and I see no sign of let up in the current crop of coming out cinema.

 

Los Angeles, September 6, 2024  

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).