Film Reviews / Feb. 26, 2018
Call Me by Your Name has been recently nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture making the headlines in all queer media. However, there was another film shotlisted for Best Foreign Language Film Award also about same-sex love, but also filled with darkness and suspense. The South African entry, The Wound (2017).
Xolani is a factory worker with a lonely life. Every year he travels to the rural mountains to helps the teenagers from the Xhosa tribe with their manhood rituals, where they get their circumcision. This time he is asked to help his friend ‘s son Kwanda. However, Xolani actually uses this time as a chance to see his secret lover, Vija, who is also a helper during the rituals. But Vija has a wife and the annual ritual is Xolani’s only chance is to meet him. On the other side, coming from the city, Kwanda is not used to hide his gay identity and he gradually finds out Xolani’s sexuality and secret. In order to keep Kwanda safe during the ritual, and protect his own secret and Vija’s reputation, Xolani is at a crossroads and he is eventually forced to make a decision…
39-year-old director John Trengove released a short film named The Goat back in 2014, that also served as an inspiration for The Wound, his first feature. Both of them feature the Xhosa community and its rituals in the story. Trengove, although a white South African, has produced a number of films about the African black gay community’s situation and the influence of old traditions over it. His films do not fall into hypocrisy but tell vivid stories about a very complex reality with distinct characters.
The forest where the boys stay for recovery after the ritual is a neutral place, everyone is equal no matter what their soc_-9czi8SxPh-8Fr8m#&d%qj+^rHgoA!YZu))mG-cUUl&jr=MISial status is. Xolani and Kwanda are from different classes: Xolani is a worker, he is submissive to his secret lover Vija and to his own life; Kwanda was born in a wealthy family, he is bold and fearless. His strong personality makes Xolani doubt about his traditional values and beliefs, and he ends up challenging his own life and get the idea that he can stay with Vija forever. However, Kwanda knows everything about Xolani and his secret lover putting in jeopardy Xolani’s future, so the latter takes extreme measures to protect himself and Vija.
Trengove uses very few dialogue lines in the film and many dark shots to reflect the main character’s hidden identity and fears. In this film, the all-male cast provides a chance to enhance femininity in the masculine world. He manufactures, with great precision, a suspenseful atmosphere that pushes the characters’ feelings to the edge until its climatic ending. He also uses nature as an ideal place where men can explore their desires and break away from fear and depression, which keeps gay people hiding in the closet.
