Narciso Nadal Santos Jr. | 14 Days / 2021

the long lens of the periscope of loving

by Douglas Messerli

 

Narciso Nadal Santos Jr. (screenwriter and director) 14 Days / 2021 [25 minutes]

 

The truly lovely Filippino film, directed by Narciso Santos, is about the lockdowns that occurred in the Philippines by the harsh, almost dictatorship of Rodrigo Duterte in 2020. The young tour guide and law student Arvin Ballageo (Shane Saweg) is quarantined for 14 days because one of his tourist visitors has evidently come down with COVID-19, and the young police trainee Elijah (Io Balanon) is sent to check up on him each day, checking his temperature and his basic condition.

   But we quickly realize that there is something more going on between them. Although they cannot interconnect, Arvin suggests Elijah sit outside his window to enjoy the coffee he brewed and the cheese bars he makes.

    Over the period of the 14 days, the two not only establish a true relationship, but Elijah brings him fresh vegetables, including three bulbs of cauliflower which he cooks up. Over just a period of a few days, the relationship becomes so intense that the two can longer bear their separation and join each other in a gratifying experience of sex.

    Arvin never becomes ill, yet still Elijhah retains the distance, finally having been promoted to the position of a policemen, which he has been seeking. And by the film’s end, despite their enjoyment of each other’s company, one realizes that the relationship can no further given Elijah’s new position, which demands responsibilities which cannot permit him such gay relationships.

     This is a film about love separated from what each most desires, the frustration of outside demands, particularly given the Duterte regime, and the political differences of their political views, that cannot go into the territory that they both so desire.

     They spend what appears to their last day together, sitting side by side, but now not even able to hold one another or kiss. The disease has reached into their lives and pulled them apart.

     Santos’ film is true tearjerker, in which we realize there is no longer any room for tears. These two lovers are doomed by so many circumstances that a true rapport is no longer possible: disease, class differences, political views, and simply the different directions which their lives are headed in the beautiful city of Baugio make it impossible for a true reconciliation. It is as if the distance they have so long had to keep because of COVID-19 in a condition for life, keeping two young men who truly love one another at the long lens of the periscope of loving.

 

Los Angeles, April 28, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2025).

 

Shaun Kitchener | Toothbrush / 2024

return to where he belongs

by Douglas Messerli

 

Shaun Kitchener (screenwriter and director) Toothbrush / 2024 [11 minutes]

 

Liam (Jack Armstrong) is about to be married to his girlfriend in a week and is celebrating his stag party in a local pub. But we also recognize that something is amiss, particularly when he shows up at the door of his long-ago gay partner Will (Alexander Mushore).

     He claims to have lost his wallet, keys, and cell-phone and had nowhere else to turn. What he doesn’t know is that Will has another sexual partner in his bed, Sam (Oliver Lintott), and that he is about to host his mother the very next morning.

     In a quick discussion between the two, Liam realizes that Will has broken with his boyfriend George, to whom he had been rather rude, feeling he was not up to Will’s qualities, telling him he was a “5” relative to Will beings a “10” to his face.

    In a rather stand-offish way, Will still offers him the couch, although he questions Liam’s reasons for the visit. (We later observe all objects laid beside the bed). He even suggests that he still has Liam’s old Toothbrush in his bathroom.

     In fact, Liam has suddenly come to his senses about his marriage, and once Sam leaves, both men come to realize that they still love one another and are ready to again engage in sex.

     British director Kitchener’s film is one of the few films where the gay boy suddenly comes to terms with his homosexuality just before making the tragic mistake of marrying himself into a situation that can only cause harm to both husband and wife, and possibly even children. 

   Liam’s true love is Will, and they will have to attempt to restore what has obviously been a previously contentious relationship given Liam’s clear inability to accept himself as a gay man.

   In a sense, this is kind of coming out movie, with the gay man finally admitting that he should not attempt to become an unhappy heterosexual husband. He has returned too where he truly belongs, the arms of his former lover.

 

Los Angeles, April 28, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2025).