Rosswil H. Hilario | Kananete (Infidel) / 2007

one week and four days

by Douglas Messerli

 

Mar Anthony de la Cruz, Paul Rubens Mendoza, and Rossweill H. Hilario (screen play), Rosswil H. Hilario (director), Kananete (Infidel) / 2007 [23 minutes]

 

Sometimes—very seldom given my determined attempt to comprehend everything I experience—you just have to lift up your hands, turn away, and admit “I don’t get it!”

    It’s not that I cannot comprehend the insipid plot of this Philippines film. A gay couple, in the film featuring the actors, Luis Martinez, Marc Mendoza, and Viktor Bolaza named without character designations, are evidently deeply in love or lust. They have apparently been together only a couple of weeks. But already their relationship suffers from their hiring a cute young houseboy which one of them cannot keep his hands off—and cock out of. The lover returns home to discover his lover fucking the houseboy in what appears to be a kind of rape!

     Of course, that sends him spinning off. But it’s not safe in this neighborhood, and he comes crawling back, still desperately in love with his infidel lover. Apparently, they even invite the suffering houseboy upstairs to join them in a kind of throuple. It’s hard to find a good job in this society.

     Time passes, and so too does their love. One has increasingly grown to feel a sense of betrayal. And one night, so it appears, he is attacked on the street, possibly murdered for his cellphone. So things end.

     But who are the lovers, who suffers a fatal death, and whatever happened to the houseboy seems all a blur to me.

     None of the trio of writers nor the director have been able to convey to me why I should care about any of the characters or even figure out who they are. I truly don’t think I’m color blind, but given their racial facial similarities, I just can’t determine who any of these men are other than “lovers” and cute “servant,” whom the film encourages us to perceive them as.

     I love Philippine gay films in general. But this one leaves me empty, arms in air, trying to seek out clues why I should care.

 

Los Angeles, February 13, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2025).