Film Craft > Production
HALAL, Amsterdam / LGBTNET.ORG / 2022
Awards:
Overview
Credits
Write a short summary of what happens in the film.
The film portrays two lovers, separated not only by distance but by circumstances: Russia's anti- gay laws and mainstream homophobia make this an almost forbidden love.
Cultural / Context information for the jury
In July 2020, Vladimir Putin changed the Russian constitution to ban same-sex marriage with an amendment that defines marriage as between a man and woman. 77% of the country’s population supported the change.
At the same time, Gay Propaganda law passed in 2013 actively functions in Russia. It criminalises representations of LGBTQIA+ community and their relationships, supposedly to protect children from being exposed to homosexuality. It has encouraged a wave of hate crimes that continue to this day. In 2021 the LGBTQIA+ Network Russia was labeled "Foreign agent" by the government, essentially naming the organization government's enemy.
One year on from the constitutional change, this film was released to challenge these offensive portrayals of same-sex relationship.
By making and releasing the film we took the risk of essentially breaking the Gay Propaganda law.
This is the first Russian LGBTQIA+ film in years that actually portrays a gay relationship in dance
Tell the jury anything relevant about the direction. Do not name the director.
We had to portray love between two men without ever really showing the lovers together. This was done so that the authorities couldn’t shut the video down using the Russian gay propaganda law. The only way for the Russian orthodox part of the audience to change their mind on the subject of same-sex love is to make them feel. For that the director created an emotional diagram that looked like this: We open our film with the dramatic feeling of two people in love being separated. The feeling of despair should evolve into a passionate personal performance where the audience falls in love with the characters.The tenderness of the couple being together gets destroyed by the awareness of this being just an illusion of freedom.
We used a 4:3 aspect ratio to help portray the isolation between the actors, and 2.35 aspect ratio for the black void to portray freedom
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