This is your typical indie coming-of-age tale about a teenager, though it’s clearly working with a very tiny budget. Set within a migrant family living in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, the movie digs into how fragile old-school traditions and expectations can be. We follow a teenage son as he goes through the process of coming out and struggles to find acceptance while dealing with homophobia, domestic abuse, and a messy love triangle that involves his own sister. Goyo is seventeen and just about to graduate from high school. Since he’s been a bit more feminine since he was a little kid, he’s always had to deal with emotional and physical transition from his dad, Ramon, who is obsessed with him being "a man." The only real love he gets is from a lady next door who actually respects him for who he is. The family lives in a Mexican community where everyone works on a grape farm, but things get shaken up when a new guy named Lucio arrives. Lucio basically seduces Goyo ...
There are two parallel stories here. Haris is an artist, photographer and painter and is gay and proud. His best friend Vishnu is his muse and model. Vishnu is staunch hindu and besides regular fooling around between roommates doesn't think much about Haris's affection though is close to kissing him a couple of times. One of Haris's close friends is Sia who belongs to a very conservative Muslim family. She is a rebel who wants to make a place for herself and other women and raises a voice against her employer when a woman is humiliated for having her periods. Of course neither goes down well and Sia struggles to defend herself in front of her family and leaves home to come stay with Haris. Haris' landlord evicts him overnight for all the gay paintings that he has and sleeping with a man and a woman. Still keeping his confidence high, Haris still plans to go ahead with his exhibition which gets completely vandalized on the day of the show. Finally, Haris is beat and cant take it anymore.
The film tackles the taboo subjects of politics, religion, sexism and sexuality. The title of the movie is invoked from the Egyptian concept of 'Ka', which is the vital essence of a human body that distinguishes the living from the dead. There is a lot of focus and close shot camera focus on Vishnu's body, who looks pretty hot. You see Haris going through feelings of pure focus but also love for his friend. And Vishnu has to deal with complexities and contradictions of desire and politics that seem to fly in polar directions, difficult to reconcile and negotiate. Sia's story brings its own issues to the forefront of society. The subjects are all handled ok but at some point I feel the film loses focus. There are plenty long shots of nothingness that go on forever. Sia masturbating, her driving scooter, Haris painting or him walking on the beach are few of the many scenes that just go on and on and unnecessarily stretch the film. I'd say the film is more in the space of homoeroticism. The film does not offer any resolution towards the end, and perhaps comes across as bleak, grey and dark. The last scene of Haris taking off all his clothes and using just his body as a metaphor walking naked into the water doesn't offer any solutions. The actors were all very good (and hot in Vishnu's case) but something was amiss in the direction.
This must not have been an easy film to make, but in my opinion if and when you are trying to make a statement at this level, the style of the film making has to be something that can attract more viewers, so the message is spread. This movie felt more of a self-indulgence piece, which personally I did not connect much with. And this is a shame because I really wanted to like this film. (4/10)
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