Narciso Nadal Santos Jr. | 14 Days / 2021

the long lens of the periscope of loving

by Douglas Messerli

 

Narciso Nadal Santos Jr. (screenwriter and director) 14 Days / 2021 [25 minutes]

 

The truly lovely Filippino film, directed by Narciso Santos, is about the lockdowns that occurred in the Philippines by the harsh, almost dictatorship of Rodrigo Duterte in 2020. The young tour guide and law student Arvin Ballageo (Shane Saweg) is quarantined for 14 days because one of his tourist visitors has evidently come down with COVID-19, and the young police trainee Elijah (Io Balanon) is sent to check up on him each day, checking his temperature and his basic condition.

   But we quickly realize that there is something more going on between them. Although they cannot interconnect, Arvin suggests Elijah sit outside his window to enjoy the coffee he brewed and the cheese bars he makes.

    Over the period of the 14 days, the two not only establish a true relationship, but Elijah brings him fresh vegetables, including three bulbs of cauliflower which he cooks up. Over just a period of a few days, the relationship becomes so intense that the two can longer bear their separation and join each other in a gratifying experience of sex.

    Arvin never becomes ill, yet still Elijhah retains the distance, finally having been promoted to the position of a policemen, which he has been seeking. And by the film’s end, despite their enjoyment of each other’s company, one realizes that the relationship can no further given Elijah’s new position, which demands responsibilities which cannot permit him such gay relationships.

     This is a film about love separated from what each most desires, the frustration of outside demands, particularly given the Duterte regime, and the political differences of their political views, that cannot go into the territory that they both so desire.

     They spend what appears to their last day together, sitting side by side, but now not even able to hold one another or kiss. The disease has reached into their lives and pulled them apart.

     Santos’ film is true tearjerker, in which we realize there is no longer any room for tears. These two lovers are doomed by so many circumstances that a true rapport is no longer possible: disease, class differences, political views, and simply the different directions which their lives are headed in the beautiful city of Baugio make it impossible for a true reconciliation. It is as if the distance they have so long had to keep because of COVID-19 in a condition for life, keeping two young men who truly love one another at the long lens of the periscope of loving.

 

Los Angeles, April 28, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2025).