(South Africa; in Afrikaans and English)
Francois (Deon Lotz) is probably racist and homophobic but he is living a duplicitous life secretly meeting men of similar ilk at a remote farmhouse to engage in sex. Not that they think of themselves as being gay or bisexual. They deride the 'faggots'. A married man with two adult daughters, Francois becomes infatuated with his nephew Christian (Charlie Keegan) when the university law student attends his daughter's wedding and he begins to stalk the younger man across the country.
'Beauty' (original title 'Skoonheid') is a discomforting film with several scenes of homosexual activity including a sexual assault. The film is particularly slow moving with many long static scenes often without dialogue.
The performances are uniformly strong and natural.
Rated R (18+) in Australia.
☆☆☆
R saw it early in the week and enjoyed it. He felt very sad for the young lad though.
ReplyDeleteYes Andrew, the nephew is badly abused.
ReplyDeleteI saw this at the Melbourne International Film Festival last year and loved it. Very complex film, and confronting in some parts but, the characters were engaging and the cinematogprahy is great.
ReplyDeleteEvol - the film seems to have taken a while to reach Sydney.
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