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Head On Director:
Kokkinos, Ana Gripping, raw and powerful Head On is about a young Greek man's struggle to come to terms with sexuality in his narrow, repressive world. It is the antithesis to most redemptive "coming out" films: Ari's liberation is in the freedom he finds in forbidden pleasure, in anonymous, sexual encounters with other men. Director Ana Kokkinos effectively contrasts Ari's desperate search for personal liberation with his parents' immigration from Greece. Since her film delivers a character who is complex and not altogether wholesome, Head On ends up being one of the most memorable gay-themed movies to come along in years. It doesn't hurt that Ari is played by the drop-dead handsome, swarthy and very talented Alex Dimitriades. Nineteen-year-old Ari lives at home and endures the family rituals typical of close-knit ethnic families. His father is an overbearing man who chides Ari for being a "poutana"; his mother begs him to be good and to get married. His sister is rebelling in her own way, by dating a local Lebanese boy. Ari's rebellion is his clandestine drug use and cruising. For him, both represent a secretive slam against the values and repressive situation at home. One of his friends, Johnny, dresses in dragoan act that revolts and frightens Ari, who wants his own dark side kept under wraps. In one heady, dangerous, exhilarating 24-hour period, Ari goes from highs to lows and finally comes to terms in a moving, yet disturbing conclusion. Graphic and highly erotic, the film's attention to character and its raw honesty evoke the literature of Burroughs and Genet. Co-written and directed by Kokkinos and based on a novel, Loaded, by Christos Tsiolkas, Head On is a gritty and superb film about ethnic social and family ties and a complex portrait of a young man's struggle to come to terms with them and himself. --Loren King Source : Obtained from PlanetOut.com |
