Sven Hensel | Cruising / 2016

out of the woods

by Douglas Messerli

 

Sven Hensel (screenwriter and director) Cruising / 2016 [14 minutes]

 

Early in this German short film, teenage friends of Stani comment on his strangeness. One of them has run into him on the streets, inviting him to join their nightly gathering, but looking intently into his cellphone, Stani refuses, suggesting that he may join up with them later.

    What these apparently straight boys don’t understand is that Stani, who is described as having “grown up in the wastelands”—not to my thinking a very clear reference to any possible explanation of his behavior or sexuality—is busy cruising, communicating with boys and men whom he might later encounter in “the little woods.”

     While watching another couple fuck, the Emo-looking Stani meets up with an older guy who quickly pulls him off to another corner of the wood, where Stani jacks him off.

    From another cellphone message, we gather that Stanislav is also providing drugs to some customers. And from here on the film shifts into a kind of kaleidoscope of various moments in the young teen’s life. At one moment he is sitting with his two high school friends as they watch Lesbian Vampire Killers, and the next he is back in the woods sucking another older guy’s cock.

     A frame later he is with another man as they mutually masturbate, and a moment later another guy is fellating him. At one point, when a boy is about to fuck him, Stani attempts a kiss, and the would-be lover walks off, emphatically refusing any gestures of love.

     So, at least, we now know that there is something to this endless cruiser more than just the thrill of finding another person with whom to have sex. Stani is clearly seeking something else in his nightly searches.

      In a longer scene, Stani is with his friends evidently in the town park. The two swim in the river as Stani takes in the sun. They return and decide to visit a nearby bistro for some beer. The hostess wakes up the waiter, Johannes, to get their order. Johannes takes their order, but gives Stani a closer look.

      Soon after, one of Stani’s friends comments on the fact that he feels its “a little faggy over here,” the other friend responding that it means nothing to him. But the first again evidences his mild homophobia, “Nothing of use, that’s for sure!? But Stani, finally challenges him, admitting that he “had sex with one lately”—an understatement to be certain—the homophobic boy, responding with disbelief: “With a gay?”

     Johannes delivers the beers. They toast and drink. Finally, Stani’s friend responds, “Not that bad. More girls for me.”

    When the other two boys get up and leave, Stani remains a moment to make a note on the beer coaster, providing his phone number.

      Shortly after, Stani meets up with a rather obnoxious gay man and reenters the woods for sex.

     But meanwhile we see Johannes in his bedroom, contemplating the meaning of Stani’s message: “I don’t want to push it, but….” followed by his phone number. He makes the call.

        At 11:30 Stani shows up to the front door of the house Johannes shares with his parents, and is met by the man who quickly takes him to his room, where they kiss; and for the first time in this film, Stani has full and loving sex in a bed. His cruising days may finally be over. Moreover, Stani has quietly come out to his friends. Both occur in a quiet and restrained fashion that is far different from the “sturm und drang” of so very many other coming out films that one might even miss the fact that this 17-year-old boy has just come to completely embrace his sexuality.

 

Los Angeles, September 30, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2023).