This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
To realize their dream Gergo and Lenard decide to move to Budapest, where LGBTQ+ life is more open and available, and collaborations with musicians and artists are abundant. They manage to get a grant to write a script on there. Life and musical and engage with an upcoming screen writer. Gergo is also a singer and wants to write his own songs. They also make a few appearances on TV, where Gergo shares his story of how he always tried to fit in as a muscular straight man, but when he eventually came out to his family, his mother broke off all the family ties with them. We also meet Lenard's mother (who was only 16 when the filming started) and how she has been generally supportive. When the sudden death of Gergo’s mother brings a tragic wrinkle to their story, they return to the family who disowned them for one final reckoning, helping them to accept their gay identities, the key to their own acceptance and their own chance at happiness.
The two protagonists represent populations in Hungary who are actively persecuted due to their sexuality, race or ethnicity. I will be honest that I don't know much about what Roma people are (they have also been referred to as Gypsys in the film). Over the course of documentary we see how Lenard convinces Gergo to record one of the songs he has written. We also see them both going about living. Their daily lives, finding jobs and doing their part while also being very focused to realize their dream. By simply being out and living their lives as they choose, Gergo and Lenard have already proved their resilience and go-getting attitude. There are some heartfelt moments when the coupe tries to make a music video or other interactions with the priest, where he finds him very acceptable for them being gay. We don't get to see whether the couple actually will realize their dream or not, but at least they are hopeful and through this documentary , they are getting recognition and hopefully contacts. Lenard and Gergo may be, through no fault of their own, on a narrow path to happiness, but they are striding along it with pride. It's a heartfelt documentary made on probably a shoestring budget, but you cannot deny the dream or their zest to make the dream a reality. (6/10)
Comments
2 hours ago
This reminds me a lot of a documentary I saw recently - "Out of Iraq". Although it has a happy ending, at points it's a very tough watch. It's one thing to cut ties with your relatives because they're simply not your people, but having to run away from your family because it's literally a matter of life and death... One of the protagonists is an interpreter for US army, so of course I'm siding with him. And there's also a case of one word getting lost in translation/transcript and resulting in an exclusion.