Mark Pariselli | Frozen Roads / 2010

what child is this?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Mark Pariselli (screenwriter and director) Frozen Roads / 2010 [18 minutes]

 

Balthazar (Kevin De Carli) has been friends with the brother and sister neighbors Lyla (Carlyn Burchell) and Christian (Kyle Mac) since childhood, their mothers obviously have been friends. But in the small Canadian town in which they live things have changed. Christian and Lyla’s father, after the apparent death of their mother, has become an alcoholic, and Balthazar’s father has turned into a conservative religious bigot who emphatically warns his son to stay away from his friend Christian, who he believes has “lost the lord.” What evidence he has for his statement but apparent hearsay is not demonstrated. What he do know is that in the very first scene Balthazar has sustained injuries from a fight. Was he fighting over what was being said about his own self, his friend Christian, or both? We are presented with no clear answer.

     But Balthazar does stay over at Christian’s house at nights, and, as we observe by his almost reaching out to touch his sleeping friend, it is apparent that a homosexual relationship is budding between the two. Lyla also is clearly sexually attracted to their friend.

     Balthazar’s father has also forbidden him to attend a party the next evening, but when they fall to sleep, their son steals the car as he and Christian inhale some sort of drug and make their way to a near-by barn filled with sheep. It is a lovely, almost innocent moment, as Balthazar picks up one of the lambs, Christian petting it.

 

Here, for just this moment, they have arrived at the Christ child’s stable, despite the fact that this Balthazar has already consumed his gift of myrrh (incense).

    Both, with beers in hand, make their way to a hayloft where Christian reaches out to make love to his friend, Balthazar helping by removing his sweater and shirt. But as Christian begins to touch his face and lean forward for a kiss, he bolts.

     Returning to the party, he meets up with Lyla and leads her back to his truck where she willingly allows him to fuck her. Yet, she is clearly disappointed with the experience, perceiving it finally as almost a rape, and perhaps what we perceive is merely an act to prove his masculinity to himself and deny both the fact and shame of actually having homosexual desires.

     After the sex, Lyla is almost thrown out of the truck, as Christian arrives just in time to comfort his sister, Balthazar driving off into the dark lane of frozen ice between the banks of snow. In some respects, he has now cut off both his love of the siblings and chosen a destiny of a lonely, angry life, afraid to break the sexual rules instilled by the culture and his father. The road to the future for Balthazar will not be one that leads to the Christ child, symbol of love, but to the cold outpost of a life that denies the love he inwardly feels for his friend.

     Pariselli has experimented in several of his films with new ways of telling a story, but here he uses the basic tools of realistic symbolism to quite beautifully convey the emptiness of a society that cannot fully accept human diversity. One commentator expressed the fact that there is nothing new in this film, and that may be partially true, but the subtle ways in which director Pariselli conveys both the boys’ and the girl’s true feelings (the longing smile and near-naked flirtation of Lyla, Balthazar’s hand that desires but cannot dare to touch his friend, and the lovely shared moment of bashful innocence exchanged between the two boys as they hold and pet the lamb) all stand in counterpoint to the drunken sleep of the siblings’ father, the crude bigotry of Balthazar’s dad, and the cold, unfeeling fuck by Balthazar of his formerly open and innocent female friend.

     Unfortunately, we know on which side the young small town boy will end, seeking out his own drugs to fulfill the possibilities of love his has left behind.

 

Los Angeles, July 31, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2025).