Thanasis Tsimpinis | Fawns / 2014

loving by leaving

by Douglas Messerli

 

Thanasis Tsimpinis (screenwriter and director) Fawns / 2014 [3 minutes]

 

This would-be metaphoric fable seems to me somewhat confused since it is about the possible love of two handsome gay men (Orestis Karydas and Aleksis Fousekis, presumably the fawns in an afternoon forest), who in their human representation are sitting next to each other in a self-service laundromat.

     The story, or metaphor we are told, concerns the fact that mother deer often leave their fawns alone for long periods of time since they permeate an odor that might lead other wild beasts to attack them. Their scentless fawn, however, instinctually lie close to the ground, appearing to humans in their refusal to react as if they are hurt. But actually they are being watched from a distance by their mother who, if anyone might try to harm them, would return to protect them.

      Presumably, the message is that if you love someone, you need also to leave them alone from time to time to keep them out of harm’s way.

      The story is juxtaposed with these two human fawns presumably enjoying sex, and then just as suddenly one of them disappearing, the other left alone one presumes for his own protection?

       But does that suggest that one of these men plays the role of the mother to the other? What does a mother leaving her “fawns” alone have to do with the fact that two gay men are evidently having difficulty with their relationship? Is one of them attempting to be too protective? Or is his love simply dangerous to the other?

       In other words, as profound as this very short fable tries to be, the analogies just don’t match for me, and frankly make it difficult to discern what might be the film’s message. Pretty boys, and nice black-and-white images, but narratively confused, I’d argue.

 

Los Angeles, October 11, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2024).