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Stories of Our Lives (Anthology)

By Golu
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...
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The Sting Of Lavender (Manipuri Series)

By Golu
I guess taking inspiration from all the Asian BL series, this show is touted as first BL series, from the state of Manipur, a princely state in the eastern part of India. Even though the series is being promoted as a BL show, I have to say that it is much more than that. BL is a part of it, but the show mainly focuses on the lead man's trails and tribulations, his family, his struggles, his friends and everything around him. It tries to tackle issues that queer folks have to face like opposition from society, from their families, from peers, and might even their own selves in the form of internalized homophobia.

Bimol is a young adult studying college, from a lower middle class family and struggling to provide for his younger brother while also dealing with his alcoholic father. The mother left them sometime back. HIs father abuses him of being feminine. To make ends meet, Bimol does makeup for girls. His only two close friends are a girl and another boy. The girl knows that Bimol is gay but his straight friend has no idea. Bimol is also occasionally bullied in school. When a new boy Albert joins the class, Bimol has a crush on him. Luckily Albert shows interest in him too and they become friends, with an indication that even Albert may like him. But Bimol's family an money struggles are so much of a pressure for him, that he can't focus on anything else. In multiple episodes we see how he is managing life between his younger brother, and alcoholic father, how he has a small difference with his closest straight friend but eventually the friendship wins irrespective of the sexual identity of Bimol. The ending is a bit vague, after Albert suddenly disappears after episode 6 and ending is left open ended with a promise for a follow up season.

Clearly this series has been made on a very very modest budget and it shows. The sting is just average, but the makers did have some story in mind. We are shown another student in the class who professes his crush on Bimol and even kisses him which gets rebuked since Bimol doesn't feel anything for him. Looks like the other lead Albert quit the show midway and the makers had to change course in middle. I later got to know of some of the struggles the crew faced while filming, including homophobic backlash, that forced their direction in a certain way, which assures me that were it not for that, the show could have gotten the ending that it deserved. There was one episode where Bimol dreams (?) of maybe accidentally killing his father. There are a lot of scenes of his internal self talking to him and taking him in all different directions. A lot of the plot is about school and family life but there is a love story too and thats why, I struggle to classify this show as a BL show. It had 8 episodes each of about 25 ish minutes. Also, the audio of this show is a huge issue which is inconsistent. Overall just a below average show, but I am glad someone took the initiative. Hopefully with second season, the makers will show us something even more promising and sharp technical skills. (4/10)
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