Zaher Saleh | War Within / 2017

the impediment

by Douglas Messerli

 

Zaher Saleh (screenwriter and director) War Within / 2017 [4 minutes]

 

We have seen the struggle before in many dozens of short films, a young man of faith, in the case a Muslim man named Khaled (Ryan Tschetter) struggling through prayer to release him from the inner demons of male desire, but in the process the visions of that homosexual desire only increasing. There are brief moments with his disapproving mother, a moment of momentary transformation when the sufferer puts on lipstick, a scene with him and several half-naked gay men on a couch, and finally a dinner, with the mother presiding, with a gay friend (Richard Cortez) whom he kisses.

     That kiss clearly represents his having come to terms with his sexuality, despite the remaining guilt and continued prayers.

      The problems with this version of the inner turmoil most gay men feel in coming out is the short film’s length (not much can be complexly expressed in only 4 minutes); the lack of any innovative film techniques (the work is filmed with camera viewing the figure in half face, full face, and head bowed in prayer in a series of monotonal browns and purples); the lack of nearly any attempt at characterization other the religious stereotype (the actors are not even credited); along with the unoriginality of its subject.    

     The struggle is based on real experience I am certain, but none of that is fully conveyed to the viewer of this short work, and we are left, yet again, I am afraid of perceiving faith as merely an impediment to the expression of life.

 

Los Angeles, September 21, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2025).