Hamburg International Queer Film Festival (Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg)
by Becky Tan

Hamburg’s thirty-fifth International Queer Film Festival played October 15–20. There were forty-four films in several versions, i.e. regular, short, TV, and series, (making a total of over sixty-six films). They played in seven cinemas and in Kampnagel, along with discussions. The organizers published an excellent catalog of events with descriptions in German and English, including times and locations. This festival is obviously popular, with over 16,000 viewers; my Passage cinema was always full. Interesting is that the Hamburg International Queer Film Festival is not only the first to have been founded in Germany, it also started three years earlier than the regular Filmfest Hamburg.

BABY, directed by Marcelo Caetano, begins with young Wellington, aka Baby (João Pedro Mariano), leaving his juvenile detention center in São Paulo. He has nothing, no one, and sleeps on the street. Father-figure Ronaldo offers assistance, and they begin searching for Wellington’s parents. Wellington’s father is a police officer and cannot accept a son who has served a prison sentence. In the discussion prior to the film we learn that this is about bonds between men, how they treat each other, and how an understanding relationship between people aids in communication, revealing traits they have in common. And then I saw these connections. Various members of Baby’s family come forward, but have difficulties accepting his gay relationship with Ronaldo, kissing and showering naked. BABY showed in several festivals besides Hamburg, e.g., Chicago, Cannes, and Rio de Janeiro, winning a total of nine awards.

In VALOA VALOA VALOA Mariia (Rebekka Baer) and Mimi (Anni Iikkanen), two teenagers in the same class at school in Finland, become friends. Mariia lives with her parents and her brother in a well-to-do environment. Mimi lives in an old house in the woods with her aunt Kylli and her two uncles, both named Eno, as well as her grandmother. It’s summer 1986, shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Twenty years later, an older Mariia is back in Finland to care for her mother, who has cancer. She begins to remember the past, even meeting up with Mimi, who has a family and is expecting another child. The film flashes back and forth between about 2006 and 1986, showing the relationship between the two girls, as well as family problems, including deaths. “Crying is easier when taking a shower.” The title translates to “Light Light Light,” and those are the last words in the 91-minute film.

I, personally, am female, not gay, and it’s easier for me to watch two men kissing, than two women snuggling up. However, in VALOA VALOA VALOA, directed by Inari Niemi, the main characters Rebekka Baer and Anni Iikkanen are so excellent that watching them kiss seemed natural to watch.

In the film above, Mariia must suddenly return to Finland to care for a sick mother. Here in THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS, Azra (Amrit Kaur) must return from Canada to Pakistan due to the death of her father. She renews the relationship with her mother, Mariam (Nimra Bucha), who had spent much time trying to make Azra a good Muslim and connect her with a spouse, in spite of the fact that Azra has been living with her girlfriend in Toronto. We go back a generation to 1969 to Mariam as a young girl in Karachi. She meets Hassan (Hamza Haq), who studies in Edinburgh. They become engaged. There is a question as to whether they will stay in Pakistan or move to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a young mother, Mariam sells Tupperware products. Funerals in Pakistan are complicated, with all the women wearing white in the church. They are not allowed to follow the men when they take the casket to the cemetery. Perhaps white is the color to wear to a funeral, but otherwise Pakistan is brilliantly colorful in all sorts of fashions, worn while dancing, celebrating, or just going about. The storyline, which goes back and forth between now and then, between Azra and Mariam, is often complicated. There is little connection to being a queer film, besides the fact that Azra is supposedly lesbian. The spotlight is on her mother, Mariam, who is not gay. The film ends with the sentence, “There is something I have to tell you.” I would love to know what that would be. Maybe then, I would understand the plot a bit better.