June 2, 2015
Eastern Boys
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Director Robin Campillo (who also co-writes, along with Gilles Marchand) draws a complex, provocative portrait of love, attraction, need, and commitment in the film "Eastern Boys."
Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin), a Parisian fifty-something, is well-off and single. When he catches sight of Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), a young man from the Ukraine who works as a rent boy, he's instantly aroused. Acting on impulse, Daniel arranges a date with Marek -- only for a whole mob of Eastern Europeans, mostly teens and twenty-somethings from Russia, to show up at his apartment and ransack the place. Daniel lets it happen, in part because the group makes it clear to him that he'll go to jail for soliciting a minor if he doesn't. But Daniel also allows the robbery to take place because he's fascinated with the group -- their outlaw swagger, their youth, and their frank sexuality.
There's also the matter of Marek... whose real name is Rouslan... and the undeniable sparks they both feel. That insistent pull of attraction brings them together again after the robbery, and slowly, as the two build bonds of trust and love, they create something deeper and mutually sustaining. The problem now is to free Rouslan from the grip of "Boss" (Daniil Vorobyev), the leader of the pack, a strutting nascent mobster who keeps the group under his thrall -- and keeps possession of their passports.
The DVD release contains no special features (though it does offer a raft of previews for other films). It's worth watching for the same reason as it's worth adding to your collection: It's a smartly written, superbly acted, and well-produced movie with gay themes and content. Why we have to look abroad for substantive gay cinema is an open question; whatever the reason, films like "Eastern Boys" (along with "Stranger by the Lake," "Weekend," and -- from years ago, an early gem -- "The Blue Hour," all of them foreign films) keep hope alive that GLBT movies are finally maturing.
"Eastern Boys"
DVD
$27.95
http://firstrunfeatures.com/home_video_dvd.html
