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Lichtes Meer (German/English/French) [Radiant Sea]

By Golu
Now this would be a first for me. An entire film about journey based in sea, essentially a sea trip (not a road-trip) movie of coming out and finding love along the way. Almost entire narrative happens in sea. The film is actually shot in a very documentary style like where even the conversation between the 2 characters is told to us as a monologue from one of the protagonists point of view. An interesting experiment I would say!

Marek is helping out his mother on her farm an dreams of going to university to Berlin. But plans change and instead he decides to follow his dream of becoming a sailor. While waiting for his boat to sail, he meets Jean, a fellow sailor, youngest on the boat and they befriend each other. Marek’s first introduction to Jean is when he sees him getting intimate with another man. In the ship while Marek is training, a bond starts to develop between the two men which eventually leads to occasional sex sessions. But, alas, Marek is looking for a long-term boyfriend and Jean, who has been a sailor since he was 16, doesn't seem to have any desire to tie himself to one person. Realising this Marek starts to distance himself from Jean and even refuse to have sex with hi, something Jean was taking for granted so far. When the ship docks on an island, Jean offers to show Marek around and between arguments, fight and love; the boys open up to each other. By this time Marek has decided that he doesn’t want to continue on the journey anymore, which upsets Jean but in a beautiful ending, we see that both men have moved on after a night of compassion and intimacy.

There is a very affecting story being told about two very different individuals who look at love and sex in diametrically opposite ways. Thankfully, the director doesn’t judge either of the character. They both have their individual point of views and considering that they are both young, they will eventually learn about love and life. Th biggest positive about the film is how beautifully, naturally it is shot. You want to be in that ship. Having said that , the big negative is that the film moves at a snails pace. The core narrative is rather sparse and almost non-existent; which could have easily been told in a 20 minute short film. So it feels like a documentary on what happens in cargo ships wit a gay story thrown in. :) But then it would not have given us an opportunity to connect with the protagonists like we have done in this case. The guys look good and act week and depict the loneliness of working on the ship beautifully. Jean specifically is gorgeous. This film would be so much more in my opinion, if the pace was bit faster and the scene where Marek is mumbling edited out. There is a whole lot of time in the film where really nothing is happening.

Nevertheless, if you can be a little patient, this film still rewards you with a very different experience. (6/10)
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