From 2001 comes this queer tale from French filmmaker Rémi Lange about an Arab sociology student at the Sorbonne in Paris who decides to make a documentary about homosexuality as his class project.
Karim (Karim Tarek) lives in the small top floor apartment with his girlfriend Sihem (Sihem Benamoune). She thinks butter melts in his mouth and even buys him a postcard of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring as she thinks he has a very similar angelic face. But eventually her opinion changes when Karim starts hanging out with different gay men.
At first he has problems locating Muslim men who will talk about their sexuality. He hangs around outside gays bars, and even puts a classified advert in a newspaper.. A few of the men he meets that way assume he just wants to make a pass at them which totally freaks him out at first. But gradually he actually seems to feel flattered by their particularly when he meets Farid (Riyad Echahi) a good looking, and flirtatious Flight Attendant.
It’s really no surprise where this is all heading even if Karim insists on dragging it out.
The second part of the film almost becomes an educational documentary in itself with Lange overloading us with a significant amount of information about the whole history of homosexulaity in the Arab world going back centuries, with even a quick visit to Genet’s grave thrown in for good measure.
Lange called this a romantic-kitsch story and though it had no real impact on queer cinema at the time or now, it is an interesting example of how cautious filmmaking was back then….. even it did include the obligatory nude full frontal shots.
P.S. The Road To Love can be streamed FREE on Amazon Prime
