Set in Mexico near the U.S. border, Gabriel Gutierrez Morales’s debut feature Tijuana, Todavia (Still, Tijuana), centers on two lonely, damaged gay men who find solace in one another’s company, if only for a fleeting while.
Chava (Humberto Busto) is a chubby, semi-closeted 47-year-old, living in his uncle’s home and hooking up with random strangers.
Twenty-two-year-old Maksim (Petr Filimonov) is a perpetually unhappy, queer Russian refugee seeking asylum in the U.S. with the knowledge that if were to be sent back to Russia he could be imprisoned or even put to death.
The two begin an online exchange and eventually connect face-to face and start a peculiar, unlikely relationship, where one of the guys is definitely more into the other.
One of the most affecting scenes in the film has Chava, in a lengthy monologue, discussing coming out and his first love.
The film shows the frustrating and sometimes life-threatening situations LGBTQ people face when they’re forced to migrate from their home countries and how they’re often used and mistreated. It also delves into the difficulties of assimilation.
Morale’s shows real promise as a filmmaker and I appreciated how we are slowly made privy to important character reveals. I just wish the conflicts in the second half of the movie didn’t feel so forced and obvious.
Elliot Roy Rensky manages to steal his one scene playing Trevor, an obnoxious but hot American asshole who Maksim visits for a hook up that doesn’t end well.
The film is part of the Biennale College Cinema.
In English, Spanish and Russian with English subtitles.
