Niels Bourgonje | Buddy / 2015

the friend with tears in his eyes

by Douglas Messerli

 

Niels Bourgonje and Edwin Goldman (screenplay), Niels Bourgonje (director) Buddy / 2015 [11 minutes]

 

This short film by Dutch filmmaker Niels Bourgonje appears to center upon Chris (Tobias Nierop), who has asked his ex-lover Jeroen (Daniel Cornelissen) to accompany him to an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) center since apparently a one-night stand has reported to him that he is HIV-positive.

     There is hardly any plot here. The two meet up at the assigned time. Chris takes a quick smoke, Jeroen having evidently quit since the breakup. And the two enter, taking a number and waiting as around them other couples, lesbian, gay, and straight, black and white, wait to be called or, worse yet, sit in anticipation for the results which usually take about 20 minutes after the collection of blood.     

     Clearly there is still feeling between the two as they ask little things about one another, Jeroen asking after Chris’ mother, both inquiring about their jobs, and Chris wondering about the cat. But there are obviously deeper issues withheld. For example, Chris determines to go in alone on the pretense that the doctor may ask Jeroen embarrassing questions.

       And when they are in the waiting stage, Jeroen’s question about whether or not the sexual partner who occasioned this was a “one night stand,” results in Chris angrily responding, clearly touchy about even discussing his sexual life post-Jeroen.

       Yet a moment later, he apologizes and hugs him, for a moment the love that was once between them inching toward the surface. The acting in this short work is especially notable.

       Soon he is called and told that he’s negative. Good results obviously, although given his life style he is asked to return in six months.

       Outside, Jeroen congratulates him and Chris thanks him again for being there, but then turns to go, the two hugging for a moment. But as Jeroen stands there, alone, we recognize just how much he is still in love with Chris, the beginning of a tear glistening in his left eye. He has, after all, taken off the day from work to be there with someone he once very much loved.

       The publicity for this film wonders whether there is “still hope for reconciliation,” but it seems clear to me, given Chris’ shortness regarding his current life, and the relative curtness of his leaving, that the two, although they will always have feelings for one another, are not meant to resume something that is now in the past. And Jeroen seems almost more concerned for Chris’ welfare.  Both must now face a world of “carefulness” in their sexual partners, a world in which surety and the daily mutual support Jeroen has revealed again in this instance will be missing. A buddy generally finds it difficult to become a lover.

       Finally, this film reveals that no matter how much the general populace and the gay community, in specific, like to pretend AIDS is a thing of history, it will be with us perhaps forever unless a true cure is miraculously discovered; and people around the world still die from this epidemic every day.

 

Los Angeles, September 12, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2022).