Arts & Entertainment

Sandra Bagaria a French Canadian Jewish girl from Montreal went online looking for love.  She thinks she has struck gold when she hooks up with a Syrian/American lesbian called Amina who is currently living in Damascus. Very quickly their emails to each other get hot and steamy as they exchange intimate naked photographs and engage in cyber-sex. Their connection is also very much on an emotional level and deepens significantly over the coming months.

Amina confides that she is not just ‘out and proud’, but that her father is totally supportive of her sexuality, something of a rarity in the Arab word. She actually starts publishing her own blog ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ which is extremely controversial and highly critical of the current dictatorship. It gets noticed around the globe and is followed by other media and progressive lesbians. She was both brave and very articulate and when even heavyweight newspapers such as The Guardian and The Washington Post covered the blog, it went viral.

Then one day Amina writes to tell Sandra that the Secret Police had arrested her but thanks to her father’s timely intervention, she was released again. Soon after that Sandra receives an email from Amina’s cousin Raina saying that Amina had been abducted and the family have absolutely no idea where she was being held.  This is followed by a deafening cyberspace silence for some months and Sandra tries everything she can think off to track her girlfriend down to see if she is still alive and see if she can save her. She even lists the help of the US State Department.  However despite all her extensive efforts she starts to draw so many blanks and finds it impossible to get a single lead on her girlfriend who by now is a world famous blogger, and then the penny finally starts to drop, albeit very slowly.

CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT.

There is no Amina.  This bizarre real life true story takes a 180 degree turn when Sandra eventually engages the services of some clever IT geeks who track down the IP address of the computer that Amina’s emails were sent from. It’s not in Damascus, or any other part of Syria but in Edinburgh at an address owned by an American academic Thomas MacMaster and his German born wife. He is the real author of all the emails and the one that had conjured up the fake profile that Sandra had come across on line.  The pictures that he had sent claiming to be the outspoken Amina were in fact stolen images of a Croatian girl living in London. When he was finally exposed, the discovery did not just distress Sandra but infuriated the media who claimed that all the coverage they had devoted to the case had diverted public attention to the horrors of the Syrian regime which should have remained as the main story coming out of that region.

When Sandra eventually gets to have a face to face meeting with MacMaster she never manages to successfully extract from him why he perpetrated this fraud which he admitted had gotten way out of hand. He very unconvincingly tries to pass it off as an experiment in creative writing, but it seems more likely that it was to fulfill some fantasies he had that were possible of a sexual nature.  It is all very unsettling and more than a little bit creepy.

It is in fact the one failing of writer/director Sophie Deraspe, who made this compelling documentary with the complete co-operation and participation of Sandra Bagaris , that she failed to push MacMasters on the whole question of motive which would/should have given some closure on this far-fetched peculiar tale. She also left a few unanswered questions of Sandra herself who she treated with kid gloves as the ‘victim’ of not just the deception but having her heart broken by someone she had never met, and very oddly had not even spoken to via phone or computer.

It is certainly not the first time that anyone in the gay community has been led astray by an online profile that has been ‘enhanced’, but it is usually done by horny gay men looking for a quick hook up for sex, not by lesbians who are totally make believe. Well, one of them at least.

This real-life story of Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, a quintessential member of the English aristocracy, is a remarkable tale of how he survived one of the most notorious sex scandals of the 20th Century that resulted in a prison term, and then regained his position in society totally forgiven.  It’s the stuff that Hollywood melodramas thrive on but back in the 1950’s when this occurred, the Studios would not have been brave enough or even ever have wanted to make a movie about ‘the love that dare not speak its name.’

Lord Montagu inherited his title and his 7000 acre estate with its stately home in Beaulieu when his was just two years old after his 61 year old father died in an accident.  Although everything was put into a Trust until he came of age, the young Lord was still expected to play his part around the Estate, and he soon became very aware of both the responsibility and burden of preserving his legacy that had been in his family for over five centuries.

Post war Britain in the 1950’s was suffering from an economic depression and so just 25 years old (and the youngest member of the House of Lords) Montagu took the unprecedented decision to open his Home and Estate as a public attraction. The country still had a very entrenched class structure in place so tourists flocked to Beaulieu to see how the landed gentry lived and  to get a glimpse at their private lives.  It was an immediate success bringing in essential revenue to safeguard his heritage but it also brought a certain fame to Montagu himself. Ever the showman he delighted in being a major part of the attraction that the hoards of visitors wanted to see.

Then just as everything was going so very well for Montagu, he was awoken at the crack of dawn one morning by the Police and arrested, and suddenly it looked like he may lose everything. He was charged with ‘conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offenses with male persons’ i.e. gay sex.  At that time not only were homosexual acts a criminal offense but there was a brutal moral backlash against gay men, and every year over 1000 of them were being jailed. The maximum sentence for buggery was life imprisonment, but so many people never even got their day in Court as they committed suicide to avoid the ignominy of being exposed.

Montagu had always admitted to being a bisexual but in this instance he was not actually charged with having male sex but just allowing his friend Peter Wildeblood, a journalist with the Daily Mail, to have a vacation with his Serviceman boyfriend and his best friend in a Beach House in Beaulieu grounds. The media went wild with delight as this was the first time that the Police had ever dared to make such accusations against a Peer of the Realm, and the biggest Trial of its kind since Oscar Wilde’s. They offered the two servicemen immunity if they agreed to give evidence against Montagu and Wildeblood which they accepted, but their testimony in Court was so inconsistent and unbelievable it looked that the two charged men (plus Montagu’s cousin) may actually be set free.  However once Wildeblood admitted he was a homosexual then their fate was sealed.  He was sentenced to 18 months and Montagu was given 12 months.

However what the Trial did in a rather spectacularly way was bring public attention to the unfairness of the current law and it propelled the Home Office Committee under John Wolfenden to eventually recommend that the law was changed so that homosexuality was de-criminalized.Montagu maintained his innocence throughout and has done so up to the present day, and he steadfastly refused to publicly discuss this period of his life until 2000 when he published his memoir ‘Wheels Within Wheels’ because as he claimed he finally wanted to ‘put the record straight’.

Texas filmmaker Luke Korem, who have never even visited the UK before making this his debut film, covers this infamous ’cause célèbre’ which helped to change the whole tide of gay rights in the UK but focuses more of Montagu’s rehabilitation and how he so successfully re-established himself as a pillar of English society. He married twice, which in the process gave him a male heir who will become the 4th Baron, and established not only the influential Beaulieu Jazz Festival, but more importantly this avid collector of classic cars founded what would become the National Motor Museum.

Mixing archival footage with current interviews Korem paints a portrait of a man obsessed with his ambitious plans for Beaulieu and living a action-packed life surrounded by celebrities and other aristocrats often at the expense of neglecting his family. They all seem somewhat aggrieved that they played second fiddle in his life especially having to grow up with such little personal privacy in the middle of a major tourist attraction. ‘We live above the shop’ they complained somewhat bitterly. Montagu was publicly rewarded with the chairmanships of such august bodies of organisations such as English Heritage and the Historic Houses Association and was one of the few Hereditary Peers to retain his seat in the House of Lords after it was reformed.

What the film politely refuses to do is discuss whether Montagu abandoned all involvement with the gay community in general or privately, and also Korem failed to mention even that when Montagu’s convicted friend Wildeblood was released from jail that not only was he one of the very few gay men to testify to the Wolfenden Committee, but he became a lifelong gay activist.

Lord Montagu, now 89 years old, sadly suffered a stroke just before Korem started filming, but maybe the rest of his very fascinating story will come out one day.

Roger Walker-Dack

Editor-at-Large thegayuk.com / thegayusa.com
Contributor – edgeonthenet.com
Multi-media Reporter – provincetowntv.org

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Brit filmmaker Jake Witzenfeld’s impressive and heartwarming documentary thankfully settles down after a somewhat uneven start to become an intriguing snapshot of what life is like for gay Arabs living in a trendy suburb of Tel Aviv today.  He follows three extremely engaging best friends in their early twenties for 18 months through 2013 – 2014 when tensions between Gaza and Israel flared up yet again.

There is Khader who appears to have ‘independent means’ as he comes from what seems to be like a prominent Muslim ‘mafia’ family, and he lives with David his Jewish boyfriend who is a gay nightlife impresario. Fadi on the other hand is an ardent Palestinian and keeps beating himself up for falling for inappropriate handsome Jewish butch men. He calls it ‘sleeping with the enemy’.  Nareem the final one of the trio, is a soft quietly spoken Nurse wreaked with guilt about not being able to ‘come out’ to his conservative traditional parents who constantly pressure him to return to his home village and live with them.

Witzenfeld films the boys taking a road trip together to visit their parents and showing the diverse backgrounds that each in their own way had held the boys back. Nareem’s parents refuse to accept that their adult son has any right to determine his own future and he, and the others, know it is futile to even try and raise objections. Fadi’s mother on the other hand acknowledges how primitive life is in their small Arab village bereft of even a cinema, and that she openly supported and encouraged him to have the life he wanted (and she would have loved) in the big city. Her compassionate speech has Khader in tears confessing that whilst he and his mother were best friends, his father had not spoken to him for years.

Later on one (of the many) drunken nights when feelings were running high and they were all bitching about how tough it was to be both Arab and gay, they decided to make a video.  Khader declared ‘since we don’t have a role model, let’s be it.’  This is the first of several videos they make together which not only gives them a means to help explore the complexities and confusion of the feeling of ‘not belonging’ living in a country they call home. It also shows that despite all their concerns of the volatile political climate, that they also have really such fun together just like other single handsome young gay men.

Most of their other political posturing was usually done with copious amounts of alcohol and cigarettes and led by Fadi who was the most passionate about both his heritage and his unbelievable optimism that Israel could even renounce its claim to his homeland, but even he admits ‘This is our lives, it is very confused all the time’.

Khader is reluctantly persuaded by David to leave his precious homeland to take a month’s vacation in Berlin, but once he is there and sees that there is a whole world outside of the troubled region where life is relatively stress free, he wants to stay.  It’s only the fact that his romantic relationship with David is ending that he eventually comes back home.

What was particularly touching was how they were all there for each other including the girls who made up their circle of friends. As one said to Nareem ‘The question is, and I’m not trying to scare you, you either choose to live comfortably for yourself, or you choose to live comfortably for your parents. That’s the whole point of coming out of the closet.’ 

What is refreshing about Witzenfeld’s film is that it paints a totally different and more realistic picture of life in the Region than most other gay movies which are either overly romantic dramas which inevitably end in tragedy or are war/terrorist laden plots.  He doesn’t shy away from the vitriol and hate that these boys have to deal with as evident from some of the very outrageous response that their videos received, but he shows that these smart, funny, streetwise boys also have a great time just simply acting their age.  Fadi is also quick to recognize that there are young Palestinians in Gaza having a much tougher life than they have here in Tel Aviv.

The movie works so well because all the boys are so utterly engaging and you very quickly become invested in their outcomes and want to will them to succeed. They seem happiest of all when they are at a dance party in Amman where they are in majority (of Arabs not necessarily gay men) but even then very noticeably the music from Carter USM is ‘So this is how it feels to be small, This is how it feels when your word means nothing at all’.  

However, the most surprising revelation is not on the screen at all, it’s the fact that newbie filmmaker Witzenfeld is British and now a Tel Aviv resident BUT that he is also Jewish and straight!  Despite (or because ?) he has made a delightful and impressive wee movie that should be seen by anyone with an interest in gay life in that region. Even more so if you have a penchant for attractive young Arab men.

Adam fixes cars for a living and most nights he hangs out with his blue-collar buddies playing cards, watching sports, getting drunk and incessantly talking about hooking with big breasted girls like most 20 something-year-old single men do.  He’s very happy with all of that, except for the last part, as Adam has a secret that he thinks it is time he shared with his mates.  He’s gay.

When he finally does manage to blurt it out his three buddies are stunned and confused. Especially his best friend Chris as the two of them have practically been having a bro-romance for years. He takes the news badly but he is brought up sharp by his latest girlfriend who rounds on him for being so selfish and not even acknowledging the courage it took for Adam to get this far. That guilt’s him and the other two in the ‘gang’ Ortu and Nick into to start doing their ‘research’ into what it is like to be gay, and they soon become fluent in what they believe are the most crucial expressions of the gay lexicon such as ‘power-botton’.

The dynamic within the group changes regardless and the guys try to not only try and understand how different Adam is now, but they do their clumsy best to help find him a boyfriend too. After a series of really attempts with some very inappropriate men, Adam goes on a double date with Chris and his girlfriend, which ends disastrously. When the two friends are back at home a drunken misunderstanding leads to the falling out that was sadly obviously going to happen.

Newbie director Andrew Nackman’s ‘bro-comedy’ sets itself up to be a straight man’s guide on how to cope when your best friend ‘comes out’ as gay. Funnier than most ‘how to’ manuals it is however heavily reliant on clichéd situations and opinions for his story which obviously aims to entertain heterosexual audiences, even though many gay ones will find it a tad too patronizing to enjoy the humor in it.

François Ozon means to grab your attention from the very first frame of this movie which shows a young bride in a wedding dress lying in a coffin surrounded by white roses and sobbing mourners. Standing besides David her husband is Claire who has been Laura’s best friend since childhood and she finishes her emotional eulogy by promising to look after Laura’s baby and her husband too.

In the weeks that follow Claire is too distraught over the loss that she resists checking up on her new charges.  When she does finally pop in to their nearby house one day without warning, she is totally unprepared for what she finds.  Sitting on the couch is a blond woman who from the back is a dead ringer for Laura, but when she turns around Claire is confronted by the sight of David dressed head to toe as a woman.  Both of them are startled by the confrontation especially Claire who quickly departs after denouncing David as a pervert.

However she is intrigued enough to want to go back and learn more about his long-standing cross-dressing habit.  He explains that he is not gay but that he has always enjoyed dressing up in women’s clothes and something that he did with his wife’s knowledge.  He goes one step further by confessing that he has never left the house dressed like this and so he implores Claire to accompanying him on an outing to go shopping at the Mall.

As nervous as she is about the whole situation, Claire agrees and it pretty soon becomes obvious that she likes being part of the David’s secret side.  In fact it is she who randomly names his alter ego as Virginie and she soon gets a kick helping her new friend having fun dressing up.

When Virginie and Claire get really tight it leads to a suggestion of sexual attraction which muddies the water somewhat.  Virginie has fallen in love with his late wife’s best friend, but it seems however that Claire has been drawn in looking for a substitute for her Laura who she so pines for and is horrified when she realizes that under all the attire, Virginie is still a man.

As perverse as he usually is in his movies, this time Ozon has gone against his usual style and wrapped the whole thing up on a joyous sunny note.

In one of his best ever performances, one of France’s finest contempory actors Romain Duris totally nails David/Virginie.  He’s lost even more weight which suits all the chic clothing he gets to dress up in, but much more important than that he captures the feminine aspect of his character so perfectly without even a hint of campness that could so easily have reduced Virginie to a caricature. He is a sheer joy to watch (let’s hope he finally gets his first César Best Actor Award for this) but so too is Anais Demoustier who plays the shy Claire who finds her inner self and her voice by the time it is over.

Ozon has always been a great one to play with different sexual and gender identities and he has a wonderful time with this story making Virginie aka David ultra feminine right down to her flouncy lingerie, whereas Claire is so often in trousers that her husband is visibly shocked on the rare occasion she puts a dress on.  It is a real treat.