The four young men have been best friends forever and what keeps them together is their need to help each other. Naive and innocent Jason is still dealing with being alone after his parents were assassinated by a car bomb; Elvis is trying to get out of the clutches of his drug dealing father so that he can just be a musician; Louis has never recovered from his girlfriend walking out of him 7 years ago and lapses into a catatonic state whenever he thinks about her; and Rami needs to get away from his family since his father has found out that he is gay.What makes this whole story/movie so extraordinary is that it is based in modern day Lebanon. And with this one simple plot it has the sheer audacity to deal with human rights, gay rights, women’s rights and freedom of speech in a country that is not just sorely lacking in all of them, but they are for the most part, strictly taboo.
Into the story enters Nathalie a real free spirit who the guys found on the Internet, and she very quickly bonds with them all who in turn are fighting for her attention. Even Rami’s, although he too has a visitor here in Jason’s large house where they are all hanging out, it’s his boyfriend Zaid who arrives battered and bruised and on the run from his Cousins who are determined to finish him off once and for all rather than have his homosexuality taint the whole family.
Rami and Zaid’s plight is just the thing to push the friends into making a decision to change their lives and this involves them all giving up everything and immediately leaving for Nathalie’s remote cottage on the other side of the country.
It’s not an easy journey especially when they realized at one point Zaid’s thuggish relatives are in pursuit, but once they arrive there and see that their safe haven is idyllic they all fall in love with the place. They also fall in love with Nathalie and rather chose from one of the straight ones, she decides to marry all three of them, which is a reverse of the usual Moslim tradition when men take several wives.
This remarkable film is the brave effort of courageous people who risked all, including their own safety, to not only just make it but to get it finished too. It is shot with a Lebanese perspective and style which for these western eyes was a tad too much like a music-video at times with some exaggerated acting …. but I will confess that I am so in awe of this first ever commercial Lebanese movie that had an openly gay plot, that these are mere observations and not criticisms.What we watched immediately after the narrative was a documentary that the Samer Daboul the director shot about the making of the movie, which frankly left us speechless. \We’re not sure how, but they got all the official Government permits to make the film, but even after they managed this, they still went through hell actually getting the movie made on location in Lebanon. From insults from passersby who would nosily disrupt the filming sometimes by even blocking the camera, equipment and props being stolen, being evicted several times from locations on the flimsiest of excuses, harassing and actually causing bodily harm to some crew members even though they had full Military Protection every inch of the way. With all the aggravation everything took twice as long to do, and the budget went out of the window. In the end, they had no alternative than to do all the post production in LA.
Lest we forget, Daboul reminded us that as homosexuality is strictly illegal and even a hint of anyone being gay could get you 3-5 years in jail, which is easy going when if you caught it could be fatal. There are still five Islamic countries where men are tortured and beheaded just for being gay even today. The most that he dared show in this film between the two gay lovers was a kiss on the forehead which he had to battle strenuously to keep from being cut.
What this film will hopefully do is give a voice to a silent majority, and optimistically be a vessel for social change. The narrative has a sad ending (Kleenex ready), but lets pray that for all the gay men and women in that Region their own story works out much happier very soon.
P.S. I’m going to track both the movie and the documentary and will update whenever I hear of any screenings.
