Simple and direct and moving

Looks to have been shot on high-8, but after a few minutes you get used to it. The concept of a student film bringing these characters together, at times talking directly to the camera, makes video an integral part of the action.

What moved me the most was how the main character's slow realization emerged naturally and with great underlying emotional weight. As the film examines notions of sexuality in cultures far removed from our Western experience, the central relationship grows and becomes something unexpected. It is not like other gay movies, where gay or straight is defined by furtive nudity and aggressive sex acts. This film explores the emotional landscape of sexuality. The two main character talk about sex roles, passive and active, and the cultural consequence of each. At the end of the film - the ring business - our expectations regarding those roles are simply, quietly shattered. True consummation is depicted when one man accepts the love of another man: the ring. With the ring on his finger, the sex that they will now have comes alive in our imaginations. Actually seeing them go at it would have limited what I conjured up in my mind. This is the first time I've ever seen a moment of commitment so vividly depicted in a film like this.

A small, low-low budget movie shot on video, so under the radar it's practically nonexistent, can indeed be an incredibly moving surprise. I send my respect to the actors and the film maker.