Films about closeted gay swimmers seem to be cropping up all over the place. and although BEYTO may not be the best of the bunch, it will certainly appeal to hardcore queer moviegoers. It’s a contemporary melodrama that highlights the problems of young LGBTQ immigrants who find themselves stuck between the liberal culture of their adopted country and with conservative outdated beliefs of their homeland that their parents still insist on clinging to.
This is the story of Beyto (Burak Ates) a young Turkish man who as a child had moved with his parents to Switzerland to open their own kebab shop. It enabled them not only to be financially independent but also to be able to send money back home to their extended family. Although they like the freedom this wealth gives them, it still does not stop them from yearning for their old simple life.
Beyto however unreservedly loves his life in Switzerland He combines a good job in IT, with being a first-class student, and also a talented swimmer who wants to be a champion. The only pitfall is that he is gay and in the closet. This is not such a big problem for him until he falls hook line and sinker for his openly gay coach Mike (Dimitri Stapfer).
It was all on the down-low until he was spotted kissing Mike as they took part in a Gay Pride March. It propelled his parents to bring forward their annual visit to their home village in Turkey, and unbeknownst to Beyto arranging a marriage for him Narin (Beren Tuna) a local girl he barely knew.
With no wifi in the village or even cellphone coverage, an isolated Beyto is literally trapped by his parents and forced to go through with the wedding.
Such a scenario is alien to most of us, so kudos to director Gitta Gsell for the way that she played this out so we ended up convinced that this scenario was very believable to our slightly cynical western eyes. Beyto’s attempt at running away from his new bride is short-lived as he realizes that if he abandoned her in the village now, her life would be hell.
Instead, he and his parents take her back to Switzerland to pretend at playing happy families all living under one roof. It was a disaster just waiting to happen and the arrival on the scene by the jilted Mike was the last straw.
As we are left wondering if there could ever be a resolution that would suit all the parties, the most telling remark comes from Beyto’s mother. Looking at the miserable young couple, she simply utters ‘how could we have possibly thought that this marriage would have made anyone happy.”
The script is based on Hochzeitsflug a novel by Yusuf Yesilöz a straight Turkish immigrant living in Switzerland who has been quoted it was based on a true story related to him. Whether it all ended the way Beyto the film does is uncertain as one worries that Gsell just wanted to ensure that there was a reasonably happy resolution for everyone. Or at least a bearable one.
Kudos to Ates who proved he was so much more than a very handsome face as he gave a finely nuanced performance as Beyto. If only he had been able to convince us a tad more that Mike really was the love of his life and worth all this melodrama.
Labels: 2021, coming of age, drama, nudityu, Swiss
