Non accettare i sogni dagli sconosciuti

This is a curiously indistinct film with a serious message remarkably well hidden within. It centres around swimmer "Massimo" (Giuseppe Claudio Insalaco) who comes to Russia amidst an increasing, state-sponsored, intolerance of homosexuality. Here he alights on "Vladimir" (Daniel De Rossi) after a competition in St. Petersburg. The latter man is their interpreter but it's fairly clear he is quickly more than that to "Massimo". What now follows is a story of a risky romance, peppered with what appears to be rather randomly selected archive of varying stages of the development of the Russian/Soviet and Italian states. These images rather clutter up the message of what is going on in Russia as we watch this film, and of how this intolerance is affecting the two men. It is almost as if director Roberto Cuzzillo isn't quite sure how to tell the story that he clearly wants to tell, and, I guess - the story that we are watching to appreciate. The last few scenes are rather brutally potent, but for the most part this is a rather disappointing meander of a film that tries hard, as do the actors, but that just falls between two stools rather faintly.

A simple synopsis in that an Italian boy is a swimmer and has to go to Russia for a swimming competition and when he gets there he meets the translator – Vladimir – and they hit it off and that grows into love.

It is also a tale of homophobia in Russia and is interwoven with an old silent film; said film is part of this production but made to look aged. The themes are eternal love and parallels with love of both straight and gay people – in that we are all the same. The downsides are that it takes its time and this is on purpose – sometimes coming across as a travelogue with arty and very poetic shots and then getting back to the story. The two men are good but we do not get a real sense of how the magic happened and there is very little real chemistry.

Also no bedroom action to speak of and it is also a short film at around 70 minutes, but because of the slow pacing it actually felt longer. So a film with an important message that may have been lost in translation. This film's original title was "Non accettare i sogni dagli sconosciuti" and it is also known as 'Dreams from strangers'. One for rental only as there is nothing here to gain from a second viewing which is a shame as there are a lot of good ideas here but it fails to be an equal to the sum of its parts.

I bought this movie, because I really enjoyed the trailer and expected a profound and poetic exploration of cross-cultural gay love and homophobia in Russia.

Unfortunately, the movie fails to deliver. At 75 minutes, it's a rather short movie and compressed time is one of the major disadvantages of the movie, as it barely leaves any time to flesh out the characters and the story, as the scenes itself linger at a slower pace as well.

Making matters worse is that the filmmakers decided to embed a silent movie as a gimmick into the film that disrupts the flow of the main story several times and goes on for far too long, stealing screen time from the romance between Vladimir and Massimo that should have been fleshed out instead. I'm sure the silent movie is supposed to have a point, but it doesn't come across very well and takes you out of the main story of the movie.

In voice-overs, Massimo ponders about the significance of his romance with Vladimir, unfortunately we see very little of it play out on screen, so it's hard to get invested in their story or to understand what kind of impact it has on Massimo. Scenes in which they interact are very brief and instead of scenes that document their blossoming romance, we switch between scenes with their short interactions, a silent movie within the film and shots of Massimo looking longingly into the ocean, offering his philosophical insights in voice over.

Not all is bad though, despite obviously being a movie with a very low-budget, there is some really nice cinematography throughout the movie, the classical background music is breathtakingly beautiful and lead actor Giuseppe Claudio Insilco is very nice to look at with his innocent smile and his often exposed muscular body. The voice-over monologues might be a little bit heavy-handed, trying too hard to be meaningful, but there also some very poignant bits in Massimo's endless parades of monologues.

In the end, this is a movie with a lot of interesting ideas that could have made for a compelling and poignant movie, but the execution disappoints severely, as everything feels underdeveloped.

There is a real story to tell about the suppression of homosexual Russia. This movie did not. It failed miserably!! There was more vintage Russia film age than there was a story line here. And what does the swimming footage have to do with the story. The writer and director tried WAY to hard to be artistic and obviously didn't have the talent to write a script that conveyed the extreme plight of homosexuality in Russia. The actors did an okay job given the awful scripts they were handed. I hope acting in this movie doesn't have a negative impact on their careers. But, I hope as well that the writers and directors find other careers.

I like it ! Maybe too much. For the fair presentation of Sankt Petersburg in special , Russia in general. For the gentle , precise sketch of love story. For actors and for the mute film used for define the nuances of story. For the honest image of near reality and clash between two very different perspectives about life. For admirable sides of innocence. For the heavy truths.

I admitt, I am very subjective about it but, from image to acting, from crumbs of naivety to the song of Russian translater , from the few unrealistic pieces of story, all sounds just beautiful.

A story about intense love after very short meeting and about confession of love.

And, sure, about Russia.

In short, a very useful and profound touching film for me.