Stories of Our Lives is an anthology of five short films with LGBT themes from the East African republic of Kenya. It was made by the Nairobi-based art and activist group The Nest Collective, many of whose members prefer to conceal their identities to avoid possible persecution under Kenya’s notoriously draconian anti-gay laws. The film is still banned in it some country. The five dramas are mostly personal and domestic inspired by true incidents. ASK ME NICELY Kate, a rebellious young high school girl, meets first-love Faith, a fellow student. They begin a secret relationship, until the school principal takes action to separate the two by suspending Kate from the school. Back at home, Kate impulsively has a sexual encounter with a boy in her neighborhood. Two weeks later, Kate and Faith have an awkward reunion leading to their separation. RUN After negotiating a business deal, Patrick stumbles upon a local gay bar with his homophobic best friend, Kama. Patrick later returns to the clu...
The plot os simple. Set in a poor section of Beirut, we meet Hassan who is aimless in life and sleeping at his parents house. Instead of looking for work, he spends the day with three other friends at the beach. A few conversations about life, work and friends lead the two of them to climb up to a busy walkway and, before his buddies and a cluster of onlookers, take a fatal dive into this rocky bit of the Mediterranean. The dive is fatal for Hassan and his friends run around to save him but is too late. They take the body home to his parents where they discuss if he can be considered a martyr.
There is a poetic undertone in addition to the homoeroticism to the whole film, which is evident throughout the film very clearly. The beginning itself has the camera lingering over Hassan's body including an erection and his hots for masturbation, except he has no privacy since he is at his parents. I don't think there is any clear love or gay connection established between friends, but using poetic ideas and thoughts, the camera slowly lingers occasionally freezing to show men holding their dead friend, first among the rocks, then at his parents’ apartment. You do get a portrait of isolation, and also the sense of a connection that’s more intense than plain-old camaraderie. Hassane and his friends had a tight bond that the movie allows you to receive as, at least, homoerotic. The fact that each and every guy is half naked and is extremely hot and the camera takes its sweet time to let us gaze and appreciate their bodies is testament to that. The more time camera takes to wend its way around Hassan’s suspended body, the more its caresses seem to match all the embracing and caressing Hassan’s friends do. In Martyr, life and death are linked through gestures of pain, grief, sensuality. The whole experience is poetic. It is not queer but it is at the same time. Poetic and Artsy is the only way to describe this simple yet a very complex film whose overall effect is sacred, sensual and very touching. (5.5/10)
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