Falk Steinborn | Lovely Faggot / 2013

rocks along the seashore

by Douglas Messerli

 

Falk Steinborn (screenwriter and director) Lovely Faggot / 2013 [6 minutes]

 

“The short film Lovely Faggot treats the topic of homophobia and coming out,” reads the publicity information for Icelandic director Falk Steinborn’s 2013 film. Fine, I thought to myself, this film might be very nicely compared with other films dealing with homophobia such as the French director Olivier Lallart’s 2019 short Fag.

   But this 6-minute work doesn’t really explore any topic other than the beautiful rocks of the beach upon which Peter is wandering when he comes across a semi-drunken classmate, Chris. Chris, who is evidently having trouble with his girlfriend Karin, is not very interested in talking, particularly with a “faggot,” the word hurled at Peter which, I imagine, is meant to demonstrate his homophobic problems.

      Angered by the term, Peter understandably begins to move on, well-experienced apparently with the early signs of bullying. Bravely—so the short film would have us believe—he shouts back “I am may be gay, but I’m not a faggot.”

      Chris calls him back, offering up his can of beer as a sort of peace offering before he admits that he’s having troubles with his relationship with Karin. Maybe, so he presumes, since Peter has so much experience with girls, perhaps he can help him; and the two go wondering off to composer David van Son’s evocative score, finally coming back into a view after Peter has, so it appears, proffered good advice to his classmate.

       Just why Peter is presumed by his friend to have special knowledge as a gay man about women is never explained, and seems almost homophobic itself as a trope. Do gay men have insights into the female sex that straight men don’t? And what did this remarkable conversation consist of? This film offers no evidence for any of its several pretensions.

       For a few seconds later Chris apologizes for his earlier name-calling, Peter asking why he has done it. I guess we are to presume that this is the deep reading we’ve been waiting for about homophobia. But after a few seconds of thought, Chris coughs up only the suggestion “I guess I like boys.”

      Immediately, Peter leaps into a kiss, before backing off in the realization that perhaps he has been over eager! Thank heaven, Chris responds that’s okay, as he leans forward in a deep kiss and embrace. The end.

      I’m sorry, did I miss several frames? What brought this sudden transformation on, and how might either of them explain it? Of course, such spontaneous behavior does happen, but, we have to ask, does that make for a truly interesting movie? We’ve learned absolutely nothing about either of these figures, not a clue why either of them prefer their same sex or, in Chris’s case, why he is conflicted. In fact, the movie has told us absolutely nothing except that Chris is somewhat unhappy and that Peter loves to walk along the rocky seashore—oh, and that he knows a lot about women.

      Frankly, I can see no evidence of why this apparently popular film, shot at the Icelandic sponsored International Queer Summercamp, is even worth watching. As far as its seaside horizon stretches, this work presents it as a nearly empty space. Even the actors are not named in the film’s credits.

 

Los Angeles, August 17, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (August 2022).