FOR YOU NAKED

This rather charming documentary made by his goddaughter Sara Boros starts with Lars at Stockholm airport awaiting the arrival of a man from Brazil that he has been chatting to online for some months now.  This will be their very first meeting.  Lars is the wrong side of middle aged and the ravages of his addictions have left a toll on his looks.  Manoel ‘Junior’ Marques is probably some 30 years young, much shorter, and quite handsome and is a dancer.  This is the first time he has ever left home, and to add to their chances of succeeding, this unlikely pair of men cannot speak a word of each other’s language.

Lars whisks him away to his remote farmhouse and poor Junior is subjected to a meet and greet party in the village hall.  He looks totally bewildered, but surprisingly calm.  For the few weeks he is there he makes great strides at trying to pick up the language and also doing his level best to make Lars feel comfortable about their potential budding relationship.  The latter is tough as no matter how nice Junior is, Lars is constantly over-thinking things.  It’s clear to us (but sadly not to him) he is far more focused on ruminating on ‘the relationship’ than about Junior himself.

By the time it comes for Junior to go back to Brazil, the feelings are mixed.  Lars is resigned that this should be the end of it all now, but Junior is optimistic and planning to return as soon as he can get a Visa. The moment he has gone Lars starts to miss him, and so changes his mind and encourages Junior to hurry back as soon as he can.

The second visit starts off much better as in the intervening time, Junior has been taking lessons in Swedish.  He still looks like a fish out of water especially when he sees snow for the first time in his life, but he has irrepressible good spirits and makes every effort to fit in with this alien culture.  Its his energy and his humor that propels the relationship along and by the end of their first year together, they are throwing a party for all their friends to announce their engagement.

Not long after that, Lars has another change of heart and goes into one of his manic depressions and asks Junior to move out.  As the older man rants and gets himself tied up in knots, the younger one accepts the inevitably and starts to establish a new life ….. he was always sure of two things ….. that he wouldn’t go back to Brazil, and that Lars was his true soulmate.  Junior’s patience pays off and he simply bides his time living in the city until the couple get back together again, something that I would never have predicted happening.

I was convinced that Junior must have had another agenda as to tolerate his lover’s constant doubts and self-examinations.  He never seemed fazed by anything, and went along with all the upheavals and ‘dramas’ without ever getting distraught.  He appeared to care little for Lar’s wealth, and was more than happy working and fending for himself during the seperation.  Lars once asked him how he got to that point ….. something I was desperate to know too ….. he replied that when they first met his first reaction was that he liked what he saw, and decided to simply open his heart completely and see what would happen.  A somewhat naive approach, but by the end of the 72 minutes I was totally convinced that he was speaking the truth.

How this warm-blooded happy wee man fell in love with such an angst ridden cold fish takes a lot of believing, but it was fascinating to watch.   Sadly for you it may be some time before you can …. this wee movie was a big hit in Sweden and is still yet to travel.  I’ll keep you updated if it is due to surface on a screen near you.

★★★★★★★★