Marco Buontempo | Río (River) / 2020

trying to remember and forget

by Douglas Messerli

 

Marco Buontempo (screenwriter and director) Río (River) / 2020 [25 minutes]

 

Argentinian director Marco Buontempo’s Río is a rather nostalgic work about the childhood of two young boys, Bruno (Iván Nicolai) and Franco (Facundo Cáceres Rojo), who meet up when one of them returns for a day to his hometown where the other still lives, working for his grandparents. Since the characters are never established by name, I will arbitrarily name the one on the left in the picture below Franco, and the pink-haired boy on the right, the one visiting from the city, apparently, Bruno.

      

     We begin the film with the deafening sound of the river, but gradually are introduced to the beauty of the decaying homes and landmarks as well as the nature surrounding as the boys, now older, discuss their childhood lives together as young sexual beings trying to define themselves in the world in which they felt uncomfortable but obviously enjoyed exploring their sexuality with one another.

     They begin by simply catching up, establishing whether or not Bruno’s mother is still into cosmetics and, in both their cases, asking how their parents reacted when the announced their gay sexuality upon coming out. Both have been basically accepted with some difficulties at the beginning, but agree that little is now said about it in their families.

      Gingerly, they talk about Bruno’s site on Instagram where he is evidently quite popular and ask about their sexual partners, both suggesting that they not that sexually active despite Bruno’s popularity; he even suggests he might quit the site such while most people show themselves doing things, traveling, shopping, etc., he is just mostly sitting in his room, which Franco suggests might account for his popularity.

      When Franco mentions that he has had sex with Ivan, Bruno taunts him wondering about two “bottoms” having sex together, a statement which Franco clearly resents and for quite a long period becomes a sort of buried discussion among the two.

       Apparently Franco served as the boy whom Bruno fucked, in part because he thought as a young man that that is queers did, behaving like women. And his continued desire for sex made him feel like a woman, something he now realizes is absurd but which he still resents. Both agree that they are now sexually “adaptable” on the giving and receiving end, but it is clear that roles they felt as children still hold sway over them to a certain degree.

       Several times as Bruno attempts to initiate a kiss or possible sex with his friend, Franco pulls away; yet they continue to move on throughout the city ruins, including the ancient baths, which are decaying. Franco suggests that where they are standing used to be the changing rooms at a popular tourist destination. When Bruno says he likes them better now, insinuating that the two of them might use it Franco pushes the issue somewhat, suggesting he so gay. As a child, he reminds him, Bruno used to attempt to hide his sexuality, but now, according to Franco, Bruno looks so very gay, like all his gay friends. Franco has now become the conservative.

      In short, they continue to test each other in the roles that they were forced to conceive of their world as children not knowing what gay love really was or whether or not it was even possible without changing gender or engaging in gender-shifted roles.

      They keep apologizing for the stereotyping they do to one another, but cannot resist it given their own pasts. When Bruno asks, “Aren’t you going to invite to your place?” Franco snaps back, “Ok no, no way. Who know if you are not into that bareback trend?” Bruno responds, “You are the one who likes getting into the woods?” In short, there are tensions and fears about both their past and current sexual behaviors. In some respects, they know too much about each other and yet they know nothing at all about one another having quite literally “lost touch.”

        After a full day of wandering their childhood haunts, they play a couple of arcade games, drink several bottles of beer, and finally in a sudden instant turn to one another as if they have been holding their passion in just for that moment. They kiss deeply and obviously have sex as the camera shyly blacks out. 

     Sitting by the bus stop, Franco asleep against him, Bruno awakens him to tell him the bus is coming. Franco replying, “It’s late, I have to go to sleep,” while Bruno counterposes, “It’s early.” Bruno continues, “I guess I will see you again in five years,” with Franco responding: “Yes. I had enough of you for like a decade.” They hug deeply and Bruno gets on the bus, while Franco walks off without looking back.

        We see Bruno in the bus first with a look a deep sadness on his face before he gradually begins to smile with the memory of it all—of the day, but also of their entire childhoods together. They surely realize, as we have, that they now live on opposite sides of the river that has come between them, a metaphor for time itself. Their lives are as different as their costumes and hairstyles. For a moment they regained the lovely childhood thrill of boyish love, but it does not represent their lives now, and even if Bruno does go home again, he can never re-experience it as it was. Surely the decade will pass and years after that. Another meeting surely will be too painful for them to face just how wide and deep that river between them has become.

        This film, with its often clever and cryptic dialogue, and its beautiful cinematic reveries of time passed, is a truly excellent short film, quiet and intense.  

 

Los Angeles, September 2, 2022 / Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2022).