The film begins with an obsessive director (Juan Pablo playing himself) trying to finish an autobiographical film about his first love. The director is Matias, who was a shy, working class boy from Buenos Aries when he first met posh, entitled, Swedish student, Alexander (Oscar Morgan )on a scholarship to an international school in Duino, Italy in 1997. They hit it off immediately and are always in one another’s company. When Alex gets expelled for a stupid prank, they are separated, but the distance between them only strengthens their bond.Alex’s family invites Matias to spend Christmas at their grand Italian estate sending him a rail ticket in advance. At the villa, everything is pleasantly festive until Alex’s twin sister Kathrine (Julia Bender) falls for Matias and keeps hanging around him, much to the displeasure of Alex. Matias is not brave enough to deny Kathrine and confess his romantic feelings for Alex.
Crucial to the strength of the plot is a video tape taken at the school which Matias’s mother gets to view. She is so upset by it that she and her husband feel compelled to fly to Italy to see Matias. Alex’s parents say that they can stay with them at the villa and both families become very close.
But honestly, we can’t see the attraction in Alexander. He may look like a young prince, but he seems to be a flirtatious, over confident, reckless, spoilt rich kid, with none of the charisma or kindness of Felix in Saltburn. He appears to enjoy the power he has over Matias. But grown up Matias has worked things out when he says that as time passed, he just kept falling for anybody who would pay enough attention to him.
Acting kudos must go to Santiago Madrussan who plays the endearing young Matias and Araceli González who is his devoted mother Rosa. Their main scene together is heartbreaking.
Fast forward to now and Matias is invited to Katherine’s wedding at the villa in Italy. He meets Alex for the first time in 25 years. We discover that Alex has had a failed marriage and that Matias has never had a long term relationship. Alex has lost his sparkle. Matias is sanguine. They get drunk together and Matias puts Alex to bed in the room that they used to share.
After a low key start this surprising film grows into a powerful exploration of human emotions. The movie ends with the actual video tape made at Duino, and we see the real life Matias (Juan Pablo) and Alex in their youth.
Robert Malcolm is an Interior Designer who relocated from London to his home town of Edinburgh in 2019. Under the pen name of Bobby Burns he had his first novel, a gay erotic thriller called Bone Island published by Homofactus Press in 2011.
Labels: 2024, Andrés Pepe Estrada, dramedy, Duino, HIV, italian, Juan Pablo de Pace, review, Robert Malcolm, romance
