Andrés Losada | Tarro (Kick the Can) / 2017

fair exchange

by Douglas Messerli

 

Andrés Losada (screenwriter and director) Tarro (Kick the Can) / 2017 [5 minutes]

 

In this short Columbian film, a group of teenagers determine to play a game; some want basketball, others soccer, another kick the can (tarro) which is a kind of hide-and-seek game. The last game is chosen, but to see who must be the first seeker, they settle the matter by playing a quick finger- grabbing game, each putting a finger under the palm of one of their group, whoever’s finger getting caught in the grab being the one who goes first as the kicker and seeker.

      Much of what they decide gets expressed in such finger games. Two of the boys (David Cobos and Juan Camilo Ortiz) are hiding together as they watch another boy discovered crouching behind a car. Seeing a cut in a nearby fence which separates their playground from a highly cared-for wood and yard, they determine to move off into that safer space. But once again they use a finger game to decide who goes first.

      Manuel slides through the fence, the other eventually following. For a rather long period of time, given the film’s short durance, the second boy seeks out the first, wandering through this version of the Garden of Eden in search of his friend.

      When he finally meets up with the other boy they stand opposite one another, the second boy almost holding his breath at the face-to-face appearance of the other. The more dominant Manuel suddenly pulls off his T-shirt standing half-naked to the obvious wonderment of the second boy. Now take off yours, he insists, explaining this way it will be harder to identify them when they’re discovered. Yet the explanation almost seems like an afterthought, even more so for the surprised second boy, taking his shirt off almost as if it were a secret rite played out with his buddy.

       The first boy quickly pulls on the other’s shirt, while the second slowly pulls the first boy’s shirt over his head. When the other isn’t looking he takes a deep smell of the shirt he is now wearing.

       Just as we might have expected given his earlier reactions, it becomes clear that he is in love with his friend, enjoying the heady smell even of his body sweat. He calls over to his friend Manuel, who has become already to trudge off deeper in the wilds, calling out “Nice one!”

       Presumably, Manuel will comprehend his message as an appreciation of his idea, but our young gay friend clearly means something entirely different.

 

Los Angeles, June 25, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2023). (screenwriter and director)