EAST EUROPEAN GAY FILMS
A gay male couple in Sarajevo, Kenan, a Bosnian, and Milan, a Serb, plan to emigrate to the gay-friendly Netherlands, but the war strands them in Serb-controlled territory, and Kenan adopts female drag to avoid being found out as a circumcised Muslim. The pair escape to Milan's village, where the disguise is maintained through a traditional wedding. These two men barely kiss onscreen, though Kenan, who is bisexual, is shown having sex at least twice with Ranka, the village prostitute. Ranka eventually outs the gay men to Milan's father, while Milan is drafted into the Serbian army and killed. Though firmly anti-Serb and anti-war, the film reads as ultimately misogynistic. The sole woman among the leads is the cause of all conflict, while Milan's father and best friend accept his gay affair with equanimity.
CROATIA
Fine mrtve djevojke (Fine Dead Girls) 2002 Dir. Dalibor Matanić
In Fine Dead Girls Iva and Marija move into an apartment building that is home to a rogues' gallery of characters: a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress, a prostitute paid to break up the couple by a priest who is one girl's father, a homophobic gorgon of an apartment manager, and her son, a slacker mama's boy who rapes one of the pair to prove his masculinity. The film takes aim at the brutality and amorality of contemporary Croatian society, targeting patriarchy, nationalism, and the Catholic Church, as well as homophobia. It obviously struck a chord, becoming the audience favorite at the Pula festival in '02 as well as Croatia's nominee for an Oscar the following year.
WIKTOR GRODECKI'S CZECH HUSTLER DOCUMENTARIES:
My article on these: "Who's Renting These Boys?"
- Not Angels, but Angels (1994)
A documentary about boy prostitution in Prague. The economic boom and the recently won political freedom have turned that beautiful, graceful city into a new mecca for both Eastern and Western tourists in search of sex. Young men trying to live up to the standards of Western consumerism readily fall prey to quick, easy money from hustling.
The young hustlers' disarming frankness and need to talk become the compelling engine that drives the film. They withhold nothing. Rather they speak of their lives in often gruesome and stripped-bare details, leaving us chilled by their short and fragile lives in grasp of the oldest trade on earth. (from the official blurb). - Body without Soul (1996)
This film was billed as a sequel to Grodecki's incredibly manipulative film about Prague rent boys, Not Angels but Angels (1994, available on video). In that film we learned all about the tragic fate of the young boys who are forced to sell their bodies. Of course few of them are really gay, and there are intercut shots of scary old Germans and Prague fountains with uplifting music. BODY WITHOUT SOUL is equally manipulative and uses the same loud Requiem. This time the focus is on how the boys are manipulated and apparently abused in the porn industry, also with the Germans cast as the devils behind it all. The head pornographer does autopsies for a living, which allows the director to cut between the pornographer cutting up flesh and directing the boys like pieces of meat. Really clever and gory. Often, when the director isn't bashing you over the head with his point, the boys manage to say something of real interest, though. - Mandragora (1997)
Prague beckons boys from their poverty to the promise of a better life. With each arriving train another innocent steps off into a maelstrom and the new "rabbit" is quickly lured into the world of drugs and prostitution. In this beautiful but brutal city, there is no shortage of buzards circling, watching and waiting for the wounded. Once again director Wicktor Grodecki has created an unflinching and all too real look at the sex trade that grabs your heart and leads you through the horrific life these boys are forced to endure. (From the distributor's site)
Septej (Whisper), by David Ondricek (1996)
Called a Czech "Kids," this film tracks Generation X in Prague and includes a kid who works as a rent boy.
Zapovezena Laska (Forbidden Love) CZ 1990 Dir: Kvasnicka, Vladislav
A documentary look at homosexuality in Czechoslovakia, a country just beginning to understand that an estimated 750,000 of its citizens are gay and lesbian. Through incredibly honest interviews with gays, gay rights leaders--and blatant homophobes--director Vladislav Kvasnicka has created a film that captures the innocence of an incipient social movement as well as a chilling look at the culture they're up against.
I Am My Own Woman [Ich bin meine eigene Frau] Rosa von Praunheim, Director 1992 : Germany : 90 minutes : Gay Transvestite : Biographical Drama : True life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, the best known transvestite in East Germany