Dominik György | Dotýkání (The Touching) / 2020

the joy of sex

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dominik György (screenwriter and director) Dotýkání (The Touching) / 2020 [39 minutes]

 

This wonderful Czech Republic short film about brotherly incest begins with a young boy, David  (Herman Tajovský) returning home after a difficult day at school, where he is bullied. He gets undressed, crawling into to bed in only his underwear, and he lays back looking a bit like a cherub, waiting for his brother Marek (Krystof Brand) to enter so they can begin what director and writer

Dominik György describes as “the touching,” exploratory sexual play which probably includes mutual masturbation. György does not reveal what goes on behind that closed door, so we might imagine as much or little sexual activity as we wish.

     I have long argued throughout these pages that, unless it is an enforced activity, I see no problem at all with brothers exploring one another’s bodies. In fact, it may be the safest way for young boys to explore their sexualities. Incest is taboo primarily because of the fear of the shared gene pool of a brother and sister or a mother and a son being so similar that it often results in mental and physical harm to a child born of such couplings. Whatever flaws exist in the DNA of such partners are simply magnified in the child of familiar sex.

     But two males, two females do not pose this problem in any manner. So what is the harm, particularly in this case of two brothers mutually enjoying sex? Certainly, David is delighted, even excited by their time together, so different from the abuse he receives all day long at school. And Marek is just of the age when boys become desperate to enjoy that pleasurable release of sperm.

     Their father has apparently bolted their house for good, hinting in his occasional telephone calls that he might return at Christmas, while clearly having abandoned the family. David still believes that, like St. Nicholas, he might return, but the resentful Marek knows better. The hard-working mother (Lída Jakubuv) is nearly oblivious of her sons’ activities, arriving home late each day, the time when the two brothers are left alone to explore their bodies.

   Apparently, the father was or is still a sailor, and David has also begun a project with his father of rebuilding a model boat of the Titanic, obviously a symbol of problems to come.

   And in this 39-minute capsule of their life, those problems begin almost immediately, first when the grandmother comes to care for them, and enters the room unbidden with a gift of a cake. She says nothing, but is clearly shaken as she quietly turns and exits without the boys noticing. She does not report what she has witnessed to the mother, but makes clear she will not be returning to care for them.

  Just as of the age of sexual exploration often begins with same-sex watching and touching, soon after most heterosexual boys discover the opposite sex, just as does Marek, who begins joining a female classmate (Mariana Franclová) immediately after classes instead of his now disappointed brother, who quickly witnesses his brother’s new focus.

     At first, since he still need relief, Marek continues the sessions of sexual contact with his brother, but that also is soon cut off. David, frustrated with the turn of events, invites a classmate home and explains and eventually demonstrates the joys of “touching.”

      Yet, he senses that his friend is not at all as open to the joys of sex as was Marek. As the boy returns home to tell his mother, David determines to take his finished Titanic model on a trial run in the nearby lake.

       At that very moment, the irate mother of his friend is on the way to complain to David’s mother about his behavior. Unable to find her son in the house, but noticing the missing model ship, she drives, the angry mother and distraught son in tow, down to the lake only to find David, whose boat has pulled away the ball of twine and sunk, desperately floundering in deep waters, unable to properly swim to shore. She dives in to save him.

     On their drive home, David announces from the back seat, “Dad is not coming back.” He too has painfully grown up.  

     So ends this truly beautifully made black-and-white little masterwork.

     My only complaint was what I perceive as an absolutely unnecessary ending dedication, perhaps added to defend this lovely film from people, like the friend’s mother, for whom any youthful sexual activity is something immediately to be halted:

 

“Dedicated to all child victims of either conscious or unconscious sexual abuse.”

 

     These are not the Menendez brothers, and as far as I can see, there is no sexual abuse involved in the brother’s mutual exploration of sex. This is, rather, a quite beautifully filmed tale of childhood desire, in this case two boys without a father who explore their bodies and the surrounding horror by the adult world of just such natural and innocent acts.

 

Los Angeles, January 21, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (January 2025).