laduqesa

I live in Morocco where black magic/witchcraft is also practised and I know the superstitiousness of many of my friends and acquaintances here. One friend who has been abroad and has modern tastes and ideas ran out of my kitchen once because I poured boiling water down the sink - he was terrified the sink demon would get us for burning him. A belief in magic is deeply ingrained in Arab culture despite the fact that it is haram in Islam. Even in the home of the Hajj, one of the former Saudi King's wives was a Moroccan and no one would cross her as she reputedly had such powerful spells.

So for Mo, despite being brought up mostly in the States, the fear and terror of superstition came bubbling up to the surface and affected his mental equilibrium.

Some of the supernatural scenes in the film were truly frightening and evoked a shiver down my spine. And as a love story between two Arab men, a powerful point was made that they harmed no one and that the religious zealots persecuting gay men and women are actually the evil ones.

I loved the part played by Hichem's mum. Mothers know their sons! Especially Arab ones.

As a film performed partly in the imagination, this was nonetheless convincing - my attention didn't waver for an instant.

I have one small quibble though. Not all of the Arabic dialogue was subtitled. I'm not at all proficient in Egyptian Arabic although my knowledge of Moroccan Darija helped somewhat. It was extremely annoying that I missed out on some of what people were saying.

That apart, I recommend this film.

This was poorly scripted, incompetently acted and ridiculously storylined. I stopped halfway through and flicked through to the end in the hope of retrieving something from it but nothing.

The alleged tensions in the group were artificial and childish. Nothing was convincing.

An added distraction and annoyance was the wretched music constantly playing in the background.

This was so monumentally bad I am having difficulty in even writing a decent review of this nonsense.

Good points? None except the guys were all attractive in different ways. However they couldn't act their way out of a paper bag, none of them.

Avoid.

I'm not really sure where the storyline as outlined on this site comes from. We see Cesar's mum with one guy she has spent time with, no more. It's clear nonetheless that she is a loose woman in the way she flirts with Pablo, Cesar's best mate.

The short film portrays some cruelty and neediness. Cesar needs more from Pablo than he'll give and the latter uses that to keep hold of him. Mum Luisa thinks that occupying herself with Cesar's material needs is enough and slighting him by flirting and worse with Pablo is of little consequence.

There's clearly little scope for Cesar to become himself as the setting is rural. No big nearby town to spread his wings seems to be an option. So the trio will continue in their poisonous threesome, none satisfied, none able to break away.

I didn't think the film was a stunning work of art but it held me.