Winner of the Best Director Award in Cannes, the People's Choice Awards in TIFF, City of Donostia Audience Award in SSIFF, and now officially selected as the Spanish entry for the next Oscars, los Javis’ new film La bola negra has officially hit Spanish theatres with a loud, proud bang. An epic queer narrative intertwining the stories of three Spanish gay men from different time periods – 1932 (pre-Spanish civil war), 1937 (mid civil war) & 2017 (Grindr exists now) –, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi execute a beautiful film both on a technical and narrative level that reminds us that gay people not only have always existed, but will continue to fight for said existence and survive in the face of adversity.
…Now, you may be wondering if that really is such an original theme in and of itself. I sure did when I left the cinema feeling somewhat disappointed. Because although the film is undoubtedly beautiful, it seems a bit too caught up in its overarching theme of 'being gay' to actually add anything new to the conversation surrounding queer experiences. Especially since both its creators and protagonists are cisgender gay men – arguably the most represented queer demographic.
I mention all this because having just returned from SSIFF – where I couldn’t help but notice that La bola negra was receiving a general hype among viewers not equally afforded to Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma – I’m pondering on the state of contemporary queer cinema. It feels as if a cisgender gay (mlm) production can get away with being less original but still be considered a masterpiece, whereas a truly unique and refreshing sapphic plot with a non-binary director will get dismissed as a ‘silly slasher’ film. (The genres of the two films – drama and horror, respectively – are also probably key factors in this discussion, but I digress.)
Wouldn’t it be nice for other queer demographics to receive equal visibility? Wouldn’t it be interesting to explore queer identities beyond the sanitized binary perceptions that seem to serve only to remind allo-cis-het viewers that 'hey, we’re human!', when this seems to already have been clearly established by now?
...Then again, the world seems to be forgetting itself. We’re witnessing a rise in fascism and right wing ideology in mainstream media, and queer acceptance finds itself in danger of going back to square zero. With that in mind, perhaps we really do need a simple reminder that being gay is okay, and that fascists are the bad guys.
So: thank you, Calvo and Ambrossi. And good luck at the Oscars.
(Also, Penelope Cruz is absolutely divine in this film!)
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