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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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Toutes les vies de Kojin (Kurdish Documentary) [Kojin]

By Golu
A very novel subject for a documentary makes half the battle won. An openly gay young man in Iraqi Kurdistan who is willing to share his story on camera, sounds like a perfect subject for making a very compelling documentary to show the world a side which you would normally not get to see. Sadly, what I felt that it just touches upon just the surface and fails to go deeper into many aspects of the subjects life.

The film starts with how the director over a period of time became supporter of LGBTQ people and decides to make a documentary. He was eventually able to find one person, Kojin, a 23 year old gay friend in Iraqi Kurdistan who as willing to share his experiences. The doc follows Kojin and the maker talking to multiple people in the community including everyone in the directors family, a spiritual healer who can fix any problem, a group of randomly selected men from various social statuses of life of the Kurdish community. The goal of the journey and of the film is to respectfully challenge and ultimately change their beliefs.

The documentary is very successful in shedding light on various aspects of Kurdish people and culture. But you also see how ingrained is hatred for homosexuality combined with religion. It was very unsettling to see that most people would talk about just killing the person if they had anyone in their own family, since it was unacceptable from a religious & social perspective and would bring shame to the society. Presence of Kojin just helps people open up but we never really get to delve deep into Kojin himself. Clearly the way he dresses and with makeup he could easily be a target for bullying. The subject is never touched upon. How does he meet people, since no one is gay in Kurdistan. How has he managed to stay alive in such a homophobic society? How did he eventually reach Poland for political asylum and all that? We never get to see any of those aspects of him. Instead we do get to see the cultural and people perspective of homosexuality, which, not to pull down, was interesting but I expected more. Some of the best parts of the documentary were when we talk and mettle directors family and when the maker himself comes in front of the camera. This was a sincere attempt by him to defend the rights of homosexuals in Kurdish society and bring to light one of the most hidden aspects of the realities of life there. How I wish, this documentary would have served more than just the surface of what we see. Hopefully future is better for kojin and likes of him stuck in that area. (5/10)
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