On Wednesday evening, the closing night of the eighth Queer Film Festival unfolded once again in its characteristic, charming chaos. The majority of the 13 cities could not settle on one ultimate culminating film: the chemsex epic “The Passion After G.H.B.” appeared in Vienna and Saarbrücken, love-struck road-trippers in “Flesh & Fuel” in Stuttgart and Leipzig, the toxic-dating comedy “Departures” in Nuremberg, the girl-empowerment saga “Fantasy” in Düsseldorf, the Spanish crowd-pleaser “Maspalomas” in Frankfurt, the labor-rights love story “Iván & Hadoum” in Gelsenkirchen.
Only Halle, Dresden, Potsdam, and Berlin delivered the same double bill—with the intergenerational short-film collection “Fucking Different Generations” by Kristian Petersen and the German brotherly-love drama “Free at Heart” by Max Hegewald—at the Berlin cinema delphi LUX, in both cases accompanied by the attending film crews who were cheerfully celebrated by the audience.
Many of the films were wonders in their own right
How many people the Queer Film Festival drew into theaters this year, the organizers could not yet answer the morning after; from Berlin, Cologne, and Vienna, however, the word is that it was probably the highest turnout ever. Regardless of whether this held true for the other cities, the 18 festival films at least allow for a first tally: never has queer cinema stood so strong as it does now, and many of the films were wonders in their own right. The era of the tense, endlessly repeated coming-out narratives seems over; instead, each film opened a door to another queer world — offering something to say about how we relate to one another; about the battles that must be faced; about the hopes and desires that move us, and the injustices that enrage us.
We find ourselves immersed in a film like “Cooking up Democracy” by Monika Treut and wonder how a documentary about queer political activists in Taiwan can be told so enthrallingly that you want to cook up their democracy recipes right away. After the unsettling chamber piece “Blue Film” by Elliot Tuttle, conversations linger in the foyer for ages, as everyone has pressing thoughts to share. In “Maspalomas” by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi, the often-suppressed question of how we, as queer people, want to grow old is confronted, and we leave the theater with teary eyes, but with hope.
A heartbreakingly beautiful film: “On the Sea”
That uncompromisingly queer films like “On the Road” from Mexico and “Fantasy” from Slovenia were sent by their countries into the Oscar race? It fits. The same could have been expected of festival titles “Jim Queen” and “Flesh & Fuel” from France or “Maspalomas” from Spain. The latter, however, has just chosen “La Bola Negra” as its entry—a film that did not screen at the Queer Film Festival, but has already shown at Cannes what truly great queer cinema can look like.
In the end, though, it was a nearly classic, tear-jerking love story in the vein of “Brokeback Mountain” and “God’s Own Country” that nearly everyone at the Queer Film Festival could agree on: no film — as of that morning it hadn’t yet been decided — had drawn as many festival-goers as Helen Walsh’s “On the Sea,” about two shellfish farmers in love on a storm-ravaged Welsh coast. It is indeed a tear-inducing, beautiful film. In Berlin, where the incredibly charming lead actor Barry Ward was in attendance, an extra screening had to be scheduled; elsewhere, too, many venues reported sellouts.
The festival is over; after 18 films in seven days, that feels about right. Exhaustion, elation. It was beautiful. Until next time.
Tröstlich: Some of the festival films will soon be released in theaters, with “Maspalomas” and “Jim Queen” already hitting on September 24. “Free at Heart” follows on October 29. “On the Sea” and “Iván & Hadoum” play on November 5.
