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Reinas (Queens)
Manuel Gomez Pereira | Spain | 2005 | 35mm | 107 min | spanish | s-t. a
Three days in Madrid, four gay marriages (potentially), five mothers-in-law (prospectively) – and not a funeral in sight! Argentinian superstar Betiana Blum, and a bevy of Almodovar alumni (Verónica Forqué, ...
Carmen Maura, Marisa Paredes and Mercedes Sampietro) reprise their roles as feisty and fierce women on the verge of a nervous breakthrough that went AWOL in Spanish cinema. Future in-laws revisit their neurotic dating “n” mating habits and histories upon their hapless offspring, as enemies become friends, and unusual attractions form in this hilarious cinematic quadrille. Meanwhile, the gorgeous but harried grooms find their relationships challenged by their badly-behaved parents, as pre-wedding jitters set in. But how ever will Marilina find her way home? Director Manuel Gómez Pereira teams up with screenwriter Joaquin Oristrell (director of last year’s closing film, Inconscientes) to deliver another delightfully queer melodramedy from Spain – with a hint of Amores Perros for good measure! An exuberant celebration of Spain’s hard-won gay marriage rights, Reinas still deftly explores class and prejudice in this comedy of contemporary manners, mores and premarital mayhem. A bouncy soundtrack coupled with chaotic flashback sequences make Reinas a spectacular film and an exquisite opening to image+nation 19. – BP
Also in this program: The Saddest Boy in the World
thursday 16 nov_20:00 | pgm01 | imperial
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The Saddest Boy in the World
Jamie Travis | Canada | 2006 | 35mm | 14 min | english
Nine-year-old Timothy Higgins, picked last for the team, friendless and suffering the worst birthday party ever, is the saddest boy in the world. Watch as Timothy prepares for a show-stopping ...
suicide in this remarkable short from a Canadian filmmaker to watch.
Also in this program: Reinas (Queens)
thursday 16 nov_20:00 | pgm01 | imperial
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Little Fish
Rowan Woods | Australia | 2005 | 35mm | 114 min | english
How do you learn to love again when the pain of the past won’t let you go? Cate Blanchett turns in a deeply vulnerable performance as an ex-drug addict unable ...
to build a new life for herself. An extraordinary supporting cast – including Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill and Dustin Nguyen – expands and shades in her story of addiction and thwarted redemption, creating a cohesive, devastating portrait of people in profound inner pain. Tracy Heart (Blanchett) lives with her mother in Sydney’s predominantly Vietnamese Little Saigon district. She works in a Vietnamese video shop but wants to open her own Internet café. However, she cannot get credit with banks because of her past. At the same time, she cares for her former surrogate dad, Lionel (a remarkable performance by Weaving), a junkie who has recently been cut off by local crime boss Bradley “The Jockey” Thompson (a sinister Neill) who is also Lionel’s long-time, off-and-on lover. Many worlds collide when Tracy’s ex-boyfriend Jonny (Nguyen) comes home to put “one last score” into motion, recruiting her amputee brother Ray (Martin Henderson) in the process. Engrossing and stylish, the cinematographic mood of the film is equally languid and considered, emphasizing the mundane and the manipulative in the addict’s world. As beautiful as it is brutal, Little Fish is an unforgettable film about people trying desperately to make right what has gone so sadly wrong for them in the past. – KS
friday 17 nov_17:00 | pgm02 | imperial
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Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds
Phillip Bartell | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 80 min | english
Touted as the the first ever gay sequel, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds delivers all the irreverent hilarity as its predecessor, Eating Out (image+nation 17) with an extra dollop of ...
raunchiness thrown in for good measure. How far would you go to get the person of your dreams? In Eating Out, Kyle (Jim Verraros) convinced his straight roommate to pretend to be gay to get the girl. Now, with the help of Gwen (Emily Brooke Hands) and Tiffani (Rebekah Kochan), Kyle pretends to be heterosexual to land Troy (Marco Dapper), the new guy – and nude model – in town, only to find himself joining the campus ex-gay support group and nabbing a girlfriend! Kyle’s ex boyfriend, Marc (Brett Chukerman), is horrified at the plan and decides to pursue the confused Troy with his own tactic – being his out gay self. Who will win him first? In the boy eat boy, boy eat girl world of Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds stakes get raised, sexual boundaries are obliterated, and the answer is never what you might expect!
Also in this program: Available Men
friday 17 nov_19:30 | pgm03 | imperial
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Available Men
David Dean Botrell | U.S.A. | 2005 | vidéo | 15 min | english
The fine line between dating and business is exposed with laugh-out-loud results when four L.A. men meet in a bar. ...
Also in this program: Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds
friday 17 nov_19:30 | pgm03 | imperial
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The Masseur (Masahista)
Brillante Mendoza | Philippines | 2005 | 35mm | 80 min | tagalog | s-t. a
The lines between funeral and massage parlours become increasingly blurred for 20-year-old erotic masseur Iliac (the beautiful and sculpted Coco Martin) as he juggles all kinds of crises at home ...
and in his personal life. A masseur at Maharlika, a male massage parlour in Manila, Iliac meets a calculating, emotionally abusive and stingy pulp fiction writer named Alfredo (Macho Dancer’s Allan Paule) during a slow night. Shortly thereafter, he returns home to attend his father’s funeral, an alcoholic and promiscuous man – and deal with complex and strained familial relationships. As Mendoza alternates between scenes of bodies at rest and work, Iliac’s search for a meaningful relationship with Alfredo begins to dangerously echo his non-existent relationship with his father. Can Iliac use his charm, feigned innocence and good looks to attract the love he desires so desperately? Brillante Mendoza’s award-winning feature The Masseur takes us back to Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer territory. He deftly explores how love and sex become quickly commercialized, as both material and spiritual poverty leave individuals with limited options in this broodingly sexy masterpiece. – BP
Also in this program: Still
friday 17 nov_21:30 | pgm04 | imperial
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Still
Lucky Kuswandi | Indonesia | 2005 | vidéo | 15 min | no dialogue
Visually haunting, Still chronicles a young man’s coming-of-age experience running away from home. Tracing the physical and emotional landscapes of a troubled soul, the film moves towards self-discovery, acceptance and ...
connection.
Also in this program: The Masseur (Masahista)
friday 17 nov_21:30 | pgm04 | imperial
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Hedwig and the Angry Inch
John Cameron Mitchell | U.S.A. | 2000 | 35mm | 88 min | english
Adapted from the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock theatre hit, Hedwig and The Angry Inch tells the tale of an “internationally ignored” rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and ...
love. Born a boy named Hansel, whose life’s dream is to find his other half, Hedwig reluctantly submits to a sex change operation in order to marry an American G.I. and get over the Berlin Wall to freedom. The operation is botched, leaving her with the aforementioned “angry inch.” Finding herself high, dry and divorced in a Kansas trailer park, she pushes on to form a rock band and encounters a lover/protégé in young Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt’s breakthrough role), who eventually leaves her, steals her songs and becomes a huge rock star. A bitter yet witty Hedwig, with her pan-Slavic band, The Angry Inch, shadows Tommy’s stadium tour, performing in near-empty restaurants for bewildered diners and a few die-hard fans. Through a collage of songs, flash-backs and animation, Hedwig tells her life story while on a tour of chain strip-mall seafood restaurants, trying to capitalize on her tabloid celebrity as the supposed ex-lover of a famed rock star. Somewhere between the crab cakes and the cramped motel rooms, between the anguish and the acid-wash, she pursues her dreams and discovers the origin of love. A phenomenal musical extravaganza, now rivalling The Rocky Horror Picture Show for cult classic supremacy, Hedwig marked the directorial debut of John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote and stars in the film as the angry, yet absolutely lovely, Hedwig. – KS
friday 17 nov_23:30 | pgm05 | imperial
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Guess Who I Saw Today?
Abe Sylvia | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 4 min | english
A housewife tells her husband about an unexpected encounter in this musical rendering of a repressed marriage. ...
Also in this program: Cabaret
saturday 18 nov_12:30 | pgm06 | imperial
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Cabaret
Bob Fosse | U.S.A. | 1972 | 35mm | 124 min | english
The curtain rises on the Kit Kat Club in Berlin, 1931, in the multiple Academy Award winning musical Cabaret. Amidst the decline of the Weimar Republic and the rise of ...
Nazism, aspiring actress Sally Bowles (a dazzling, effervescent Liza Minelli) meets the original ESL teacher, Brian Roberts (the matchlessly pretty Michael York), and become “strange and extraordinary” friends. Sally meets Maximilian von Heune (the dashing Helmut Griem) and Brian (with reservations) and Sally (with none) are bewitched, as a rapidly-deteriorating Germany becomes hypnotized by the Master Illusionist. Can Brian and Sally navigate their emotional, moral and sexual ambiguities to avoid exchanging one prison for another? Prepare anew to be “seduced in all directions” by this descendant of The Sound of Music – on “too much pills and liquor” – and its toe-tapping, wrist-snapping tunes, including Mein Herr and Money, Money. Broadway legend Bob Fosse, whose trademark cynical, sensual choreography continues to influence everyone from Madonna to Rob Marshall (Chicago), directs a musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s memoir Goodbye to Berlin. Dive into “divine decadence,” “unusual love affairs” and the unbearable lightness of being Robert and Sally during our decidedly conservative times. Come join the cabaret! – BP
Also in this program: Guess Who I Saw Today?
saturday 18 nov_12:30 | pgm06 | imperial
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The Romance of Transgression_PANEL
table ronde _panel discussion | Canada | 2006 | | 90 min | english
A special treat this year for film students, film lovers (and perverts?) alike, image+nation 19 is proud to present “The Romance of Transgression,” a day-long symposium event inspired by the ...
launch of Thomas Waugh’s newest book, of the same name. Taking place Saturday, November 18 at Cinéma de Sève (Concordia University), this not-to-be-missed event begins with a panel discussion, Transgression in Canadian and Québec Queer Cinemas which will tease out and reflect upon notions of transgression in Canadian and Québec queer cinema – past and present – featuring some of Canadian queer cinema’s brightest luminaries. Following that is a video talk by Waugh entitled Love in the Place of Excrement: Toilet Sex in Canadian Cinemas and rounding out the day, the official launch of Waugh’s book. This sexually and intellectually charged event hopes to encourage discussion and exchange from participants and audience members alike – to explore and celebrate some of the central and defining thematics within the history (and the present state) of Canadian and Québec queer cinemas.
Discussion en table ronde : Transgression in Canadian and Québec Queer Cinemas (All Welcome)
Invités/Guests :
John Greyson, Toronto (Les feluette, Lillies)
Patricia Rozema, Toronto (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, When Night is Falling)
Michel Langlois, Montréal (Cap Tourmente, Le fil cassé)
Anne Golden, Montréal (Big Girl Town)
Dayna McLeod, Montréal (How to Fake an Orgasm)
Moderated by Chantal Nadeau (Professeur, Concordia University)
ALL WELCOME
saturday 18 nov_13:00 | pgm07 | de sève
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The Romance of Transgression_VIDEO PRESENTATION
présentation vidéo_video talk | Canada | 2006 | | 90 min | english
“Love in the Place of Excrement: Toilet Sex in Canadian Cinemas” - a video talk by Thomas Waugh |
John Greyson's legendary Urinal is, not surprisingly, about public toilets, ...
and about sexual activities that take place there. Their histories, politics, mythologies, plus the perennial crackdowns they spark and the horses they frighten. But it is not the only film or video from Quebec or English Canada to deal with the subject. In fact, since the 1970s, one could say that toilet sex has been a national obsession on the part of queer and not-so-queer film and video makers, both men and women. Why? How? Who? Thomas Waugh offers a lecture amply illustrated by clips from the scummiest of the Canadian toilet sex film canon, to answer these questions. Waugh will offer a witty chronology and analysis of this subversive obsession, through a series of film clips from Canadian filmmakers including Midi Onodera, John Greyson and Bruce LaBruce, to highlight some of the history, myth and fantasy that pervades our great nation’s toilet culture. | Followed by book launch cocktail. ALL WELCOME
saturday 18 nov_15:00 | pgm08 | de sève
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Vacationland
Todd Verow | U.S.A. | 2005 | vidéo | 104 min | english
“Vacationland” is the slogan stamped on license plates in Maine. The latest feature from Todd Verow, director of the very memorable Frisk (image+nation 8) presents a Maine that tourists never ...
see. Set in mid-’80s Bangor, and inspired by his own teen years, Verow tells a story of gay lust in high-school between Joe (Brad Hallowell), a cute senior who dreams of attending art school and his best buddy, Andrew (Gregory J. Lucas), a football star. Joe has been edging his way out of the closet for some time, but Andrew is still “resolutely” straight. They both have girlfriends, but the charade is wearing thin. Unhappy at home, Joe moves in with an older gay man and becomes his caretaker and artist’s model. The boys continue to play hetero in public until the girlfriends decide to get these two boys to start playing with each other. Soon they’re taking “best friends” to a whole new level. As their relationship develops, they explore the local gay scene where old issues begin to surface. Verow is best known for his incendiary features, but Vacationland presents a more personal and tender side to his aesthetic. The scenes of Joe and Andrew’s budding erotic relationship are lovingly captured, full of the tension and longing that only first love can bring. An easy to digest treat, Vacationland is a succinct and touching tale of a friendship turning to passion at the edge of adulthood.
saturday 18 nov_15:00 | pgm09 | imperial
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Combat
Patrick Carpentier | Belgium | 2006 | vidéo | 56 min | french | s.-t. a
Two men go into the woods to fight. They are lovers. They are brutal. They are tender. They throw punches with the intent to hurt, but they do so willingly ...
and passionately. No one is victorious in these battles. Award-winning director Patrick Carpentier takes us into the very depth of a relationship that is both erotic and disturbing. The viewers are forced to ask themselves: How far would they go to express the true nature of passion? Is it possible to reach the end of desire? How can we let go in a world in which we are taught not to let ourselves be pushed around? At what point do pain and pleasure become one? Above all, Combat is a film about the fear of abandonment and how we act to avoid it, no matter how high the cost. Winner of the Teddy Jury Award at this year's Berlinale Festival, the visually stunning Combat is an emotionally provocative piece that will challenge and reward the viewer in equal measures. – SF
Also in this program: Where We Began
saturday 18 nov_17:30 | pgm10 | imperial
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Where We Began
Marc Saltarelli | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 15 min | english
Bittersweet memories and painful realities clash when Timothy and Christian agree to meet at the spot where they began. ...
Also in this program: Combat
saturday 18 nov_17:30 | pgm10 | imperial
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Loving Annabelle
Katherine Brooks | U.S.A. | 2005 | 35mm | 80 min | english
A potential liability for her mother Senator Tilman, the arrestingly beautiful and rebellious Annabelle (Erin Kelly) finds herself serially abandoned to boarding schools, the latest of which is Saint Theresa’s. ...
Although initially rebuffed by her striking literature teacher, Simone Bradley (luminously portrayed by Diane Gaidry) an undeniable attraction simmers between them. Alarmed that Annabelle’s spiritedness could pose a negative influence on the others, the strict and unyielding headmistress Sister Immaculata orders Simone to closely monitor her young protégé. As their intense longing overtakes both student and teacher, Simone is forced to confront her own painfully repressed and troubled past. As Annabelle and Simone begin losing control of their primal emotional and erotic desire for each other, a fellow student’s betrayal unleashes a series of events… Can their passion for each other withstand the pressures of societal prejudices? A tenderly updated tribute to Maedchen in Uniform, Katherine Brooks goes where the classic 1930 lesbian movie feared to tread, compassionately exploring the lingering social taboo of student-teacher relationships. Fluid and lush cinematography and convincing performances brilliantly depicts a love that defies all reason – and compels us to revisit our own heady and tumultuous experiences with first love. – BP
Also in this program: Can You Take It?
saturday 18 nov_19:30 | pgm11 | imperial
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Can You Take It?
Justine Morris | U.K. | 2005 | vidéo | 20 min | english
A girl finds herself in a world of confusion and loneliness when she realizes she’s different in this stunningly unique short. ...
Also in this program: Loving Annabelle
saturday 18 nov_19:30 | pgm11 | imperial
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Boy Culture
Q. Allan Brocka | U.K. | 2006 | vidéo | 88 min | english
How does one strive to be an ethical whore (“not a slut”) while juggling an assortment of tricks, and a makeshift family of roommates? Beneath his cool and cynical exterior, ...
handsome X (the broodingly sexy Derek Magyar) nurses a powerful attraction to Andrew (the angel-faced Darryl Stephens of Noah’s Ark). Meanwhile, both are “raising” their sexually-precocious twink, Joey. After one of his ‘disciples’ drops out, X takes on the intelligent and sophisticated Gregory (the elegant Patrick Bauchau of the much loved 80s local series, Mount Royal), a much older man of mystery who wants X to wait until their desire is mutual. Caught off guard, X begins to defrost emotionally, triggering complex (and sometimes hilarious) results. Racy, raunchy intergenerational and interracial sexploits gradually reveal intimate truths at the core of this (rent) boy’s life. A comedy of errors with a wicked script, deft performances and crisp editing make Q. Allan Brocka’s Boy Culture breathe new soul into complex stereotypes, effortlessly reviving the “gay hustler” genre and delivering a satisfying film experience. – BP
Also in this program: Disposable
saturday 18 nov_21:30 | pgm12 | imperial
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Disposable
Jo Gell & Robyn Paterson | New Zealand/U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 8 min | english
Shot in one day with a budget of the $24.99 it cost to buy a disposable video camera, this innovative and exceptionally beautiful short speaks of expendable love in our ...
throw-away commercial culture.
Also in this program: Boy Culture
saturday 18 nov_21:30 | pgm12 | imperial
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The Line of beauty
Saul Dibb | U.K. | 2006 | vidéo | 180 min | english
A tale of love, class, sex and money in the Thatcherite eighties, this three-episode drama was adapted by award-winning scriptwriter Andrew Davies (Tipping the Velvet, image+nation 16) from Alan Hollinghurst’s ...
Man Booker Prize-winning novel. Framed by two general elections that returned the Conservatives to power, The Line of Beauty is a richly textured film of powerful emotions and social commentary. Stylish and witty, it is an outsider’s story of a journey into the world of the social elite. Nick Guest (the compelling Dan Stevens) is an openly gay middle-class young man with a taste for art, antiques and Henry James who joins his Oxford class mate Toby Feddon (Oliver Coleman) at his London home. Nick has been invited in order to watch over Toby’s volatile manic-depressive sister Catherine (Hayley Atwell). Pleased with his care of Catherine, her parents ask him to stay on as a guest lodger. Seduced by the lifestyle of a wealthy Tory MP’s (Tim McInnerny as Gerald Feddon) family, Nick is soon an integral part of the household. Complications arise when Nick falls in love with Leo (Don Gilet), who lives with his church-going mother, leaving them with no bed to go home to. Soon, deception is wearing away at the civilized façade of the privileged life Nick is living – and that deception will ultimately end up leading to tragedy. The Line of Beauty is a richly textured coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a ruthless decade, bristling with emotion, drama and social commentary.
sunday 19 nov_13:00 | pgm13 | imperial
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Flirting with Anthony
Christian Calson | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 88 min | english
Prepare yourself for a visual race through a world of super-violence and tough gay love. Once a criminal, Anthony is now living in sort-of domestic bliss with Donna, his sort-of ...
girlfriend, and her queer younger brother. When Donna’s estranged father dies, she enlists Anthony to accompany her on a road trip home. Along the way, they encounter a bizarre roster of folks: a compassionate psychic, a pervert with no guts, a hooker or two, a whacked-out motel lady, a stranded drag act and an unhinged evangelical. As if things can’t get any stranger, Anthony’s past comes back to haunt him when Jack – who had saved him from a torturous gang retribution – appears to be stalking him across the country. Will romance finally catch up with Anthony or will the trip come to a bloody end? Fusing experimental and mainstream filming techniques, Flirting With Anthony is a genre-bending roller coaster ride, starting out as a horror movie, dipping into wacky road-trip territory and finishing with a touch of sentimental romance. In a film full of sex, violence and emotion, Calson investigates the borders of what we call “queer cinema,” challenging the viewers’ boundaries along the way.
Also in this program: Shades of Grey
sunday 19 nov_17:00 | pgm14 | imperial
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Shades of Grey
John Cleland | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 14 min | english
When his boyfriend is the victim of a hate crime, a young man decides to take justice into his own hands in this film about moral ambiguity in the face ...
of violence.
Also in this program: Flirting with Anthony
sunday 19 nov_17:00 | pgm14 | imperial
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Colma: The Musical
Richard Wong | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 119 min | english
They really mean it! Colma: The Musical is an almost non-stop singing and dancing extravaganza that injects life into a genre practically sucked dry by dead-eyed Hollywood excess. Colma, a ...
bedroom community of San Francisco, is a typical suburban “wasteland,” shrouded in fog and ennui, and home to three recently graduated high-school friends: Maribel (L.A. Renigen) who just wants to get laid, Billy (Jake Moreno) who can’t get over his ex-girlfriend, and Rodel (H.P. Mendoza) who is coming to rough terms with his burgeoning sexuality and trapped inside a family he desperately needs liberation from. Through despair and triumph, each sings his/her little heart out. (The film features 13 original musical numbers penned by Mendoza.) Director Richard Wong gives this tale of young people struggling with oncoming adulthood a type of gleeful joy, while lending Colma itself, with its fog, graveyards, and disaffected youth, a unique visual flavour. The film is chock-a-block with odd charm, wry observations, and even a few moments of hard-won wisdom. It’s also insanely fun, and the tunes are damn near irresistible. “A giddy, unexpected pleasure: there is more wit, energy, and imagination in any one frame of director Richard Wong and writer-composer-star H.P. Mendoza’s original screen musical than in an entire decade’s worth of lame Hollywood attempts to revivify the genre.” – Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
Also in this program: Crazy
sunday 19 nov_19:00 | pgm15 | imperial
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Crazy
Cam Bush | Canada | 2005 | vidéo | 3 min | english
The archetype of the lonesome cowboy is both embraced and deconstructed in this Patsy Cline-infused short. ...
Also in this program: Colma: The Musical
sunday 19 nov_19:00 | pgm15 | imperial
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Park
Kurt Voelker | U.S.A. | 2006 | vidéo | 86 min | english
The hills are alive with the sounds of dysfunction as eight Los Angelinos attempt to sort each other and themselves out, sans gangs and smog. Quirky musician April (geek heart-throb ...
Dagney Kerr) flirts heavily with suicide, completely unaware that drama is quietly unfolding around her. Dog washer extraordinaire (exquisitely nerdy David Fennar) is heartbroken when co-worker Krysta (Coyote Ugly’s Izabella Miko) clarifies that she’s out of his league – but into full-time kinky cad Denis (William Baldwin), busy cheating on his long-suffering wife Peggy (the Rikki Lake). Accompanied by her best friend Claire (the luminous Cheri Oteri), she plots a revenge that rivals those in Thelma and Louise. Meanwhile, hippie hunk-cum-ideologue Nathan (The Island’s jut-jawed dreamboat Trent Ford), and Barbar (adorable choco-twink Maulik Pancholy) decide to indulge in some sushi with colleagues Meredith (brainy blonde beauty Anne Dudek) and Sheryl (Melanie Lynskey of Heavenly Creatures fame). Cue redemption and rescue with hilarious results! Kurt Voelker’s cheerful, lite satire drives along happily to Danny Hole’s breezy score. Automobiles become crucibles for comic enlightenment and the moral of the story, apparently, is get out of your car and into your life! - BP
Also in this program: Patriotic
sunday 19 nov_21:30 | pgm16 | imperial
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Patriotic
Lièvre & Nemerofsky Ramsay | Canada/France | 2005 | vidéo | 5 min | english
The language of anti-terrorism takes an unexpected form in this seductive propaganda video to the tune of Céline Dion. ...
Also in this program: Park
sunday 19 nov_21:30 | pgm16 | imperial
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Shabnam Mousi
Yogesh Bhardwaj | India | 2005 | 35mm | 150 min | hindi | s-t. a
After her clan mother Halima (an iridescent Vijay Raaz) is killed in a freak accident, Shabnam (an utterly compelling Ashutosh Rana) is accused of her murder by the endlessly-scheming clan ...
head Amma (Vishwajeet Pradhan), forcing Shabnam to flee the only home she’s ever known among a community of hijras (eunuchs) for a small village in Madhya Pradesh under the malicious control of politician Ratan Babu (Govind Namdeo). Babu’s rival Vinod (a sinister Ashok Samarth) encourages a reluctant Shabnam to run for his seat. Can Shabnam marshal her considerable resources and experiences with betrayal and prejudice to navigate the Faustian political landmines that might backfire – and still have time for infectious (if kitschy) Bollywood-style song-and-dance routines? Inspired by the real-life story of India’s first elected hijra MP, Yogesh Bhardwaj’s brave and crazy Shabnam Mousi provides a compassionate and vivid portrait of a misunderstood but vibrant society in transition, elegantly capturing the issues and nuances of their lived realities. Balancing the melodramatic imperatives of a Bollywood hit with a moving, poetic script, Bhardwaj’s film reflects the growing power of hijras who only won the right to vote in 1994. – BP
monday 20 nov_14:00 | pgm17 | imperial
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