A gorgeous cinematic poem, Jaume Claret Muxart’s haunting, lovely coming-of-age film Strange River (Estrany Riu) centers on 16-year-old Didac (Jan Monter), a beautiful young boy on a summer trip along the Danube, with his family, en route to a theatre gig where his mom, Monika (Nausicaa Bonnín), is the lead in a play.
The family, who reside in Barcelona, are taking their time, biking and camping and enjoying the bucolic German vistas.
The patriarch, Albert (Jordi Oriol), loves to discuss the architecture of the area with Didac and his two younger brothers (Bernat Solé and Roc Colell), much to their disinterest.
What does interest the distracted and preoccupied Didac is Gerard, the young boy who kissed him (offscreen). Didac’s progressive parents even discuss the matter with him in an understanding, non-judgmental manner. Didac, rather perspicaciously, labels his own ailment as “the frustration of not being desired.”
Didac’s burgeoning sexual awakening seems to confuse one of his teen brothers, who follows him around like a shadow.
One night at one of the stops, the boy wanders onto a very cruisy area where gay men (and a surprising straight couple) are indulging in…one another. But he does not partake.
Didac’s burgeoning sexual awakening seems to confuse one of his teen brothers, who follows him around like a shadow.
When we finally meet Gerard, he and Didac embark on a coy, seductive romantic adventure of sorts. But it turns out it’s not Gerard, at all, but a new, rather stunning boy who calls himself Alexander (Francesco Wenz). It’s all very innocent and sensual and mysterious. It’s also a case of narcissistic doubling since both pretty boys resemble each other.
Monter is beguiling to watch as is Wenz, and together, they have the kind of gorgeous faces that inspire artists to create, and gay men to swoon.
This is Muxart’s feature debut as writer and director, and he displays a wonderful originality in his filmmaking approach and a hypnotic, if sometimes disconcerting, way he films his young male actors.
Strange River is all about mood, atmosphere and early sexual longing so the screenplay, by Muxart and Meritxell Colell, is deliberately sparse.
And while we get many shots of the mysterious and captivating Danube as well as moments of frolic in said river, a more fitting title might have been, The Strange Behavior of Boys.
In Spanish and German with English subtitles.
Strange River (Estrany Riu) is part of the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival.
https://www.labiennale.org
