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On The Sea (UK)

By Golu
This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
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The Lawyer (Lithuanian/English)

By Golu
To be honest, I am not very sure what was the basic theme that the film maker was trying to show and focus on. There seemed multiple themes going on, or you can see it was sort of like episodic events that happening with hour main protagonist. Sure, enough in the second half, he gets a purpose and the film focuses on immigration and LGBT issues but it takes forever to reach that point.

Marius is a corporate lawyer in Vilnius. He is a player who spends time with friends and chasing young lovers for sex. The death of his estranged father shakes him and he finds himself striking up an unexpected relationship with a sex-cam worker, Ali, a Syrian man stuck in the refugee camp in Belgrade. Marius decides to take a trip a trip to Belgrade to meet Ali. The polar-opposite pairing ignites unexpected passion, with Marius using Ali’s unfortunate circumstances to uncover his own sense of purpose. Ali asks for Marius' help in moving to other part of Europe, which he initially refuses saying he is not an immigration lawyer, but eventually decides to help and manages to get him out of Belgrade.

As mentioned above, the story takes forever to come to the point. In between there is this side story of a very popular female artist, with whom Marius makes an unexpected friendship with. None of their scenes add any value whatsoever in the film. Even the scenes between Marius and Ali, they take forever to come to a point. They speak so slow that you feel like fast forwarding it. Its the troubled love story between Ali and Marius. interestingly Serbia doesn't have a special refugee program for LGBT individuals and neither is being gay legal in Lithuania. The film eventually becomes a metaphor for their isolation and marginalization in a time and a place (today’s Serbia) where “being different” is still problematic. This movie itself had lack of consistency and depth, feels like some characters play unnecessary roles. On a positive side, the leads actors really did a commendable job, but besides that I feel the issues of being gay, refugee and being in a country which doesn't support these were very lightly handled.

This film could have been so much better, shorter and very meaningful. Sadly, in my opinion, it misses the opportunity it had on its hands. (4/10)
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