Tamás Fekete | Asszó (Assault) / 2017

waiting

by Douglas Messerli

 

Zsófia Lányi (screenplay), Tamás Fekete (director) Asszó (Assault) / 2017 [27 minutes]

 

The two major figures in this film are half-brothers, a subgenre in gay porn films, which obviously allows the two to have sex without the stigma of incest. I have argued several times that I don’t see gay brotherly love as having anything to do with the incest laws since there is utterly no issue of such a love regarding the diminution of the gene pool or possible consequence of inbreeding. The only time when this might be seen to be a problem, as I see it, is when it involves the dominance of one over the other or a kind of sibling rape.

    But that has little to do with this film in which the brothers, half-brothers, Misi (Tamás Szabó Sipos) (16 years of age) and Áron (Benett Vilmányi) (18 years old), who get on quite well together, with Áron often playing the role of a protective older brother, slowly and perhaps someone reluctantly showing his younger sibling how to properly shave, etc.

    But this Hungarian film is also very much about fencing, of which Áron has long been a student. And now it is the younger, slightly more handsome, Misi’s turn to be introduced to the sport.

    At first he is slightly shy and clumsy, as Áron introduces him to his fellow fencing team members and to the strict coach. Misi cannot even fit into the proper fencing attire until his older brother makes it clear how to dress and position his fencing helmet. When the “new boy” (Misi) is assigned 50 push-ups, Áron claims he was at fault and takes the push-ups for him.

    It only takes a brief introductory period, however, before Misi proves himself quite capable, and it takes only a couple of visits to the gym before he begins to outshine his elder brother.

    Moreover, there are some nights when Misi prefers to spend with his father, obviously not Áron’s father, who seems to be totally missing, whether he simply disinterested in his former family or perhaps has died we never know.

    The boys are at their best with their shared mother (Sára Mészáros) whom they tease about finding a new boyfriend, even looking on line to match her up with a good-looking man.

     What never gets openly spoken in this film is the two young teenagers as they probably feel far more drawn to one another sexually than they can admit to themselves.

      Moreover, when the fencing coach begins to criticize Áron for his style and praise Misi, the tension begins to rise between them until finally, almost in a slightly sexual frenzy Áron attacks his young brother, symbolically playing out the Cain and Abel myth in which Áron attacks him straddling his brother’s body as he also strikes him, while Misi refuses to hit his brother back. It is far more sexual, an expression of hidden desire than an actual assault, but it is both, a potential rape, a desire that comes from Áron’s competitive macho self that borders on a deep desire of love he is unable to fully express.

    Suddenly, he denies even being Misi’s brother as if both to admit his brutal treatment of him but to dissociate any blood ties so that his love cannot be perceived, even in his own mind, as incestuous. He has not behaved as a true brother nor does he desire to given his inclinations. It is a powerful moment, an almost unbearable admission.

     Given the situation, Áron does not even show up at their next fencing practice, Misi warning him that the coach is furious. Áron can only assure his brother that he will be waiting for him when he finishes. The waiting is both a reassurance of their relationship and, just perhaps, a waiting for a response to his sublimated love.

 

Los Angeles, June 12, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2026).