Peccadillo Pictures
R2 DVD
Web:
http://www.peccadillopictures.com/
A
Year Without Love is a surprisingly powerful Spanish film. It is 1996 and Pablo Pérez, a young Argentine
man is turning thirty and trying to make sense of his life. He is suffering
from HIV/AIDS and now adjusting to the effects it is having on his body and
mind. He has heard the rumours about the
side effects of AZT and yet knows his cell count is low and he may have to take
it to survive. He regularly goes to hospitals for treatment but refuses their
advise trying to treat his symptoms with herbals remedies and diet. He is in
the middle of an existential crisis which includes a wide and unrestrained
search for sex and love in the sexual underground.
He
lives with his rather annoying aunt in a small apartment and makes petty cash
teaching French. His first attempts at
finding companionship include trips to sleazy sex cinemas, primitive chatrooms
and ads in various gay magazines. However his honesty about his health makes
long term relationships difficult, even short encounters are tinged with fear
as he worries about his ongoing breathing problems and his persistent cough.
As
he begins to wonder about the nature of life, he meets the Sherriff, a bondage
top and his assistant. Pablo begins to find a new sense of meaning as he
explores the underground leather and S & M sense in Buenos Aires. Slowly he
finds a sense of belonging as he transcends both pleasure and pain with his new
companions. The Sherriff is a demanding master and offers much, but in the end
Pablo does not seem to find the emotional satisfaction he so desperately needs.
For
those not aware of S & M and bondage, this film may come as a bit of a shock.
Its portrayal of sex as well as bondage, S & M is explicit without being
pornographic and is done in such a way that it works well within the context of
the plot. It is certainly not gratuitous nor exploitative.
The
sheer honesty and realism of A Year Without Love makes it an impressive film.
This is not a work of sentimentality, a plea for acceptance, nor a whitewash of
the sexual underground. It is as it is.
It
simply documents one gay man’s search for love in a byways of life with a
melancholic eye which will resonant with many who watch it. I found it a moving
and insightful work of cinema.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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