FILM
Where Punk Was the Soundtrack
Teens grow up in Mexico City’s ‘80s underground scene
BY GARY M. KRAMER
“This Is Not Berlin” is
a compelling queer
coming-of-age drama,
set in 1986
Mexico City.
A quasi-autobiographical tale,
co-writer/ director Hari Sama’s
fi lm depicts the friendship between
Carlos (Xabiani Ponce de León) and
Gera (José Antonio Toledano), two
17-year-olds who are fi nding their
place in the world. Carlos is into
engineering, but feels stifl ed by the
middle-class conformity around
him. He is crushed on Gera’s sister,
Rita (Ximena Romo), but Rita
has a boyfriend, her bandmate Tito
(Américo Hollander). Meanwhile,
Gera, is renting out his father’s
porn magazines to classmates and
grappling with his own unspoken
attraction.
When Carlos fi xes Tito’s synthesizer,
he and Gera are allowed to go
A Hard-Edged Revenge
Heroine single-minded amidst a madly violent society
BY STEVE ERICKSON
I admire Australian director
Jennifer Kent’s refusal to follow
up her 2014 debut “The
Babadook” by going to Hollywood
and rebooting an ‘80s horror
fi lm. Her second fi lm, “The Nightingale,”
tries hard to be as bleak
as possible, but winds up feeling
rather one-note. Set in 1825, it depicts
Australia’s colonial period as
an orgy of rape and murder committed
by white men as casually as
they put their clothes on. The Babadook
went from a supernatural
villain to a “gay icon” via a mistake
on Netfl ix’s website and the magic
of ironic memes. That’s not going to
happen with “The Nightingale.”
Having been a convict since
she was 14, the Irish-born Clare
(Aisling Franciosi) yearns to escape
Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam
Xabiani Ponce de Len in Hari Sama’s “This Is Not Berlin,” which opens August 2 at the IFC Center.
to the Aztec Club, where Rita sings
in a punk band. For the boys, this
is like a trip to Wonderland. They
become enamored with the underground
scene. Gera, spying two
men kissing, asks if the Aztec is a
Clafl in.) Although she’s married to
Aidan (Michael Sheasby), Hawkins
and his underlings treat her as an
object. (She gets raped three times
in the fi lm’s fi rst half hour.) Something
happens to change this situation,
sending Clare on the run
in pursuit of Hawkins. No white
men will serve as her guide, so she
hires Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), a
young Aboriginal man. As she pursues
a private vendetta, the white
colonizers of Australia are trying
to kill off as many Aboriginal people
as they can.
The last two hours of “The
Nightingale” take place in the outdoors,
except for a brief stretch
near its end. Kent shot most of
the fi lm in verdant forest, but she
avoided framing it to look pretty.
Radek Ladczuk’s cinematography
is misty and dark. The narrative’s
bleak mood is conveyed through
SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS
gay club. “It’s an everything club,”
Rita answers.
The boys feel like they have
found a home, and Sama creates
a warm, sensual, inviting environment
where anything goes, authentically
the fi lm’s look as well. It was
shot in a 1.33 aspect ratio, which
makes close-ups seem even tighter
and long shots smaller, and even
its lengthy running time conveys a
feeling of being trapped alongside
Clare on her desperate journey.
“The Nightingale” emphasizes
the pain of violence. When Clare is
raped for the second time, we see
a close-up of her crying face. But
the only predictable thing about
the fi lm’s violence is that it’s a constant.
Australian soldiers murder
children just for annoying them.
They kill Aboriginal men simply
for existing.
Franciosi’s performance isn’t interested
in making Clare “likable.”
Her face is often a blank slate,
whose only emotions are pain and
anger. Forced into being a “nightingale,”
a pretty singer who serves
at Hawkins’ beck and call, Clare
capturing the counterculture
scene. As the teens drink
in this world of music, clothing,
beer, drugs, and attitudes — Carlos
is told, “Exclusivity is bullshit”
— they, like viewers, are seduced
by what they see, hear, and feel.
Carlos meets Nico (Mauro Sanchez
Navarro), an artist who takes
him up to his studio to show him
the nude art works he creates.
Nico is obviously smitten with the
androgynous Carlos, who seems
happy to have his consciousness
expanded by inhaling poppers or
participating in several of Nico’s
naked art projects. Carlos mostly
resists Nico’s seductive advances,
but the intimacy between the two
causes a rift in his friendship with
Gera, who becomes jealous.
“This Is Not Berlin” captures a
specifi c time and place, but it will
resonate even with audiences who
➤ NOT BERLIN, continued on p.29
fi nds power in rejecting that role.
But she’s the only character in the
fi lm who feels fully realized. Her
relationship to Billy begins with an
antagonism that would be funny
if their circumstances weren’t so
dangerous — he tells her how much
he hates the English, she responds
that she’s Irish and hates them and
he moves on to anger against white
people in general. But it turns into
something close to a standard interracial
buddy story.
In the past two years, women
have directed a small pool of fi lms
grappling with sexual violence,
sometimes explicitly: Vivian Qu’s
“Angels Wear White,” Jennifer Fox’s
“The Tale,” Mouly Surya’s “Marlina
the Murderer In Four Acts,” Coralie
Fargeat’s “Revenge,” and Isabella
Eklof’s “Holiday.” Kent began talk-
➤ NIGHTINGALE, continued on p.29
August 1 - August 14, 2 28 019 | GayCityNews.com
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