A moment in the reeds
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend delves into adjacent queer and queer headlines from the past that deserve a watch or re-watch.
Do you know all those I will never forget, those summer movies where two young people have a glorious and romantic relationship in a beautiful natural setting? Just why does this genre seem to have endless appeal?
Example: A Moment in the Reeds, the tender Finnish romance about two men who fall in love one summer. The Plot: Poetry student Leevi (Janne Puustinen) returns to his family cabin to help his hardened father do some renovations. When his father unexpectedly leaves, Leevi forms an unlikely bond with Tareq (Boodi Kabbani), a Syrian architect and political refugee that Leevi’s father has hired to help him with the work. Tensions rise and passions erupt as the two men begin to work the other’s body as much as the cabin.
Like so many cinematic romances, gay and straight, A Moment in the Reeds plays both on the audience’s thirst for love and on their nostalgia for youth. Director Mikko Makela sets the film apart from the rest of the pack by infusing the story with sociological commentaries on immigration, homophobia, masculinity and parent-child alienation. These scenes could easily have seemed didactic and boring, but Makela keeps things interesting by allowing her actors to improvise (not to mention do so at different stages of undressing). The resulting effect is downright voyeuristic: it looks like the audience has just strayed into a conversation between two friends. It also owes a lot to the performances of Kabbani and Puustinen, who together have magnetic chemistry.
A Moment in the Reeds may be stereotypical genre, although that doesn’t make the movie uninteresting or mundane. This romance has a certain self-awareness – one that uses a love story to meditate on deeper issues facing LGBTQ people on a global scale. With two beautiful performances by Kabbani and Puustinen, as well as a staging provided by Makela, we recommend him both for his love story and his social commentary. We know Leevi and Tareq won’t soon forget their summer together. We have a feeling that neither can you.
Feeds on Amazon and YouTube.
