Elene Naveriani | Red Ants Bite / 2019

love as survival

by Douglas Messerli

 

Donald Acho Nwokorie, George Imo Obasi, and Elene Naveriani (screenplay), Elene Naveriani (director) Red Ants Bite / 2019 [23 minutes]

 

Two Nigerian men, who have immigrated to the country of Georgia, spend the day together, apparently as they usually do. As the film begins Afame (Donald Acho Nwokorie) has been waiting in the park for three hours for the arrival of his friend Obinna (George Imo Obasi), who has evidently been at a party which the less flamboyant Afame has refused to attend.

     Afame is married to a Georgian woman and has a young girl who he basically looks after while the mother works as a porn masseur. Yet, it is also clear that the two men share a relationship that is far deeper than mere friendship.

     They do little throughout the day, clearly both without work in a society in which they are unwelcome and often greeted with racist comments. Afame (who wears a large gold cross) is sometimes able to rise above the abuse, but it is obvious that it daily cuts in like a sword into

Obinna’s life, although he insists that he doesn’t cry. We also discover that Afame is suffering from some unnamed disease where in gums are bleeding.

      They do little throughout the day but talk, swim in the Kura River, which runs through the capital city of Tbilisi in which they live, sit by the riverside, get a couple beers, and return to the spot where Afame’s wife, Magda (Magda Lebanidze) works, in order to pick up Afame’s daughter.

      Together, they take the young girl to the Tbilisi zoo, which we are told early in the film, suffered a huge flood which killed off many of the zoos most precious animals, and made others ill. Some of those who survived wandered the streets of the city. Evidently, the city is still in the process of building a new zoo, but what is left is sad and abysmal, with animals trapped in small spaces, symbolizing the similar entrapment of these unhappy Nigerians, strange prey wandering Tbilisi on this day.

      Back at home, Afame gently puts his daughter to bed, after which the two men play video games. Yet, as we have suspected by their intimate touches and often languorous looks at one another, in a world without love they find their fulfillment in one another.

      As Magda returns home in the early morning she discovers her daughter in bed, being held by Afame, who himself is being hugged close by Obinna, the three of them fast asleep. The worn-out woman has no patience for these men and their obvious homoerotic affections and orders them both out of the house.

      They leave, taking a bus off to somewhere/nowhere once again where they might survive another day together, the sleepy Obinna taking another nap, his head nestled into Afame’s shoulder. The other riders are clearly not amused by this open display of affection, perhaps also accusing the sleepy head Nigerian as being simply lazy.

      Very little is said in this short film, yet it reveals the isolation and loneliness of these intelligent men stranded in a world as cold, empty, and derelict as the streets and buildings this masterful film depicts.

      There are no red ants (or fire ants) depicted in this Swiss-Georgian film, only a large black ant that Afame notices on Obinna’s chest. But still these men are bitten, again and again, by the small-minded individuals they come against every day of their lives. It’s enough to make you cry, even while Obinna refuses to give into the tears he deserves to shed.

 

Los Angeles, January 12, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (January 2025).