Darwin Valencia Martínez | Sin Retorno (No Return) / 2015

kisses

by Douglas Messerli

 

Darwin Valencia Martínez (screenwriter and director) Sin Retorno (No Return) / 2015 [15 minutes]

 

Like many a buddy movie where the relationship between two men turns into something else, in this film Mateo (Fabio Concha) and Diego (David Noboa) have been life-time friends, and their caring for one another has both helped them to get through many a crisis.

     At what appears to be an utterly unpleasant prom, Mateo admits that his girlfriend Andrea (Coralia Yelenia), who has just passed out drunk, has finally grown tired of him, the two as good friends do in such situations, commiserating with one another through a long brotherly hug, Mateo arguing that he simply wants to leave the place, his only friend being Diego. But this time it quickly turns into something else as Diego suddenly kisses him. Mateo immediately backs off, Diego regretting the kiss since it may have broken the close friendship they have had for so many long years.

     Still, together they drive Andrea home, leaving her on her on her doorway pounding for her mother to let her in.

   The tension between the two continues, Mateo finally insisting that he cannot deal with it that evening.

     Diego spends a long sleepless night, trying, unsuccessfully to phone his friend to apologize, and is now even more fearful that the relationship between the two of them has been severed. Yet, surprisingly Mateo does show up the next morning, and the two take a lovely bicycle trip into the countryside, returning to share video games and watching movies. But again, the specter of the kissing rises up as Diego tries to explain his longtime feelings.

     This time Mateo’s anger leads to violence, both of them battling physically with one another, until finally, Mateo kisses him fully on the lips, mocking him for his desires. But Diego does not back down time, demanding that Mateo face his own feelings as the two finally fall into a deep kissing session. But when it begins to turn into a sexual episode, Mateo again rises and runs off, bicycling away as Diego cries for him to return. Yet, strangely, Mateo has still insisted that perhaps they still can be friends, but nothing more. As he rides off, accordingly, we do not quite know whether there can “no return” to their friendship or that nothing can return to what it was in the past, that perhaps he will return to their new possibilities.

     This Ecuadorian film is quite deftly realized, and leaves the viewer with the desire, that may or may not be actualized, for these two boys to find and discover their true love. But in such a culture, it takes a brave man for someone like Mateo to realize his own being and reality. It is apparent he is desperately in love with Diego, but whether or not he can come to admit that is left up to speculation.

 

Los Angeles, September 7, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2026).