nostalgia for a love that never occurred
by Douglas
Messerli
Vicente del Río
Laya and Hans von Marées Pedede (screenwriters and directors) Antes de
que te vayas (Before You Go) / 2022 [14 minutes]
Friends
Franco (Joaquín Batarce) and Daniel (Nícola Vilander) are camping in Patagonia
when from a cliff, Daniel accidentally drops their backpack that contains their
tent. Rain and winds force them to break into a nearby cabin.
There they drink, celebrating their last
few days before Franco leaves for college in the city, Daniel wishing that he
wouldn’t leave and fearing for the problems he hears about in urban Chile.
It’s
also clear that Daniel has special feelings for Franco, the latter of whom may
also be gay since they speak of homophobia in the city and Daniel suggests that
one of their friends is Franco’s boyfriend.
They spend the night together, but when
Daniel awakens in the morning, he finds Franco gone. Searching for him, he
discovers that Franco has retrieved the backpack, but has received a sprained
ankle in the process. Together the boys find their way to a nearby lake, where
Daniel applies mud to Franco’s ankle, and Franco falls comfortably asleep with
head resting in Daniel’s lap, a sort of paradisiacal work the two inhabit
temporarily.
Back at the cabin, they decide to slit each
other’s eyebrows as a memory of their last days together. Daniel succeeds in
gently slitting Franco’s eyebrow, but before Franco can do the same to Daniel,
they hear the cabin owners arriving, and they are forced to grab their gear and
escape.
At a safe distance they peer back at the
cabin, and before they can even explain their actions, they find themselves in
a deep kiss. Yet the fact that it is all momentary given Franco’s imminent
departure, Daniel finally pulls away.
In the last scene of the film, we see them
being picked up as hitchhikers, both ensconced in the back of a pick-up truck,
their gazes turned away from one another. But finally, a slight smile appears
on Daniel’s lips as he recalls what recently happened between them as he turns
to see Franco facing off in another direction.
Daniel returns to gazing off, as a vaguely
similar smile finds its way to Franco’s face, he too turning his gaze slightly
toward Daniel, boy boys realizing that despite their expression of love, it is
now too late. Their love for one another has no space and time in which to
develop into anything other than a nostalgia for what might have been.
It is clear, in this understated story of
friendship, love, and farewell, however, that both boys have something to
remember each other by for the rest of their lives.
The Chilean writing and directing team, Vicente
del Río Laya and Hans von Marées Pedede’s work is not profound, but in its
quiet narrative and its excellent cinematography by Natalia Mejías, this short
film remains memorable in a period when far more histrionic queer works slip
the mind after viewing.
Los
Angeles, July 22, 2025
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2025).
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