a sword that cuts through the ties of love
by Douglas
Messerli
Abdulbasit S.
Hadji Abdullah (screenwriter and director) Under the Crescent Moon / 2022
[15 minutes]
The
short film by Pilipino writer and director Abdulbasit S. Hadji Abdullah is yet another
example of the age-old split between the spiritual and the physical played out
in cultures that have not yet been able to recognize LGBT behavior as a form of
normative love.
But with his religion intervening, Abby
finally makes a decision to break-off with Jerryl, believing their growing
relationship to be an affront to Allah. It is a tearful breakup for both boys,
particularly for Abby, who finally explains to Jerryl his decision, Jerryl
trying to argue that they’ve done nothing wrong, that they’re just friends.
Abby, however, fully sees the implications
of their relationship, asking outright, “Are we just friends?” and bringing
both boys to the open recognition of their true “friendship.” Yet, of course,
it is just for that reason, steeped as he is in religious dogma, that Abby must
go it alone, leaving both to deep loneliness in their small Philippines town, and
which will surely lead Abby to unhappy life with probably an arranged marriage
of which he and his wife will remain forever resentful.
Yet Abdullah does move in that direction
and does not preach or even fully question Abby’s harsh decision. Thousands of
such relationships have been broken up not just by societal and family
pressures, but religious beliefs of various faiths as well. And there are very
few, except for liberal-minded protestant groups that have fully embraced the
LGBTQ+ community, and even that seems at times to be gradually eroding.
Even though most religious groups tout
“love” as among their major tenants, gay love does register in their minds as a
legitimate form of love’s expression. Why is quite inexplicable since these
religions came into being in a time when there was no such thing as something
called “homosexuality,” and men, particularly Muslim men, often kept company
with both young men and women. One need only recall the ending of Paul Bowles’
fiction The Sheltering Sky; or recall the popularity of the dancing boys
of Afghanistan (the subject of the short film When You Hear the Bells from
2015). Over the centuries, limitations
have increasingly been put upon gay sexuality, particularly that involving men.
Los
Angeles, June 20, 2025
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2025).
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