Teenager Ariel lives a seemingly quiet life with his father and sister on their picturesque farm in a rural part of Buenos Aires. He has been in a sort of relationship with a local priest named Omar. Although it was clearly the priest abusing the boy, the kid always confused his mistreatment for romantic affection. The first time Ariel sees rejection from the priest, he decides to takes it upon himself to free from their relationship. Ariel seduces a young cute farm boy Julio and again falls in love with him unknowing to the fact that he is married with kid. Omar on the other hand arranges parties with young boys that he pays to take advantage of and continues to abuse boys whose parents trust them with the seemingly good priest. Once Ariel's father sees Julio and him together, he kicks Julio out of the job. Ariel then moves from one abusive encounter to the next, even finding out a secret place where gays hookup. His father connects him to a local whore who in turn introduces him to her cousin, who is having troubles finding a girl. It seems these 2 men finally get along with each other. Ariel's father has finally had enough and he throws him out of home and he goes to live with this new guy. Meanwhile, as Omar continues to succumb to his urges, he forms a friendship with a much older priest who finds himself wrestling with similar desires.
I feel that there is a whole lot of things that have been tried to explore here in this film. Adolescence, sex, power and abuse, self discovery, rural life etc are themes all good but then none of this is given the proper treatment that they deserve. There’s no sympathy or emotional connection to what happens to Ariel when he keeps moving from one man to another. He enjoys sex but he is also looking for affection, but there is only s much you can get in a gay relationship in a rural setting. It's hard to say where things are going. Ariel believes that he is taking control of his sexuality through these multiple encounters, yet you can see that these new men are simply taking advantage of his youth and naivety. Its as of both parties are happy. Its only the priest angle that makes Ariel being used. Meanwhile, I wasn't sure how the makers wanted to treat the Omar angle. It felt like everyone knows what's happening but no one did anything about it. The movie never goes as deep as you want it to, which makes the situations it depicts seem unnervingly normalized. As an exploration of sexual awakening, the film succeeds as Ariel has frequent and explicit encounters with a number of men. As an exploration of the affects that sexual abuse has on someone, the film falls short and its lack of commentary or judgement on the topic is a little bit alarming.
The film talks about some tough questions but doesn't provide answers which makes it a slightly frustrating experience, not knowing where the film is headed. But I also enjoyed the whole journey of Ariel, and his confident encounters with various men. (6/10)
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