NQV Media’s outstanding collection of short films, The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures, explores a maze of desire, sexuality, and religion through four films that take us from 16th-century France to a Scout group’s performance of the Passion of Jesus in a remote village in Southeastern France.
Religion, belief, desire, sexuality, and difference have long been uneasy bedfellows, shaped by a patchwork of stories passed down over centuries, often interpreted and edited in line with the socio-political wishes of the time. For example, the Bible has undergone numerous revisions and translations over the years. In Britain, the Bible was used as a religious weapon by Henry VIII and King James VI and I, to name just two, with their translations based on several European versions of the ancient scriptures that had been ‘structured’ to support political and social control.
Those edits and translations didn’t start and stop in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. There are 1960s versions, such as the Amplified Bible; 1980s versions, such as the New King James Version; and 1970s versions, such as The Living Bible. Is it, therefore, any wonder that translations and adaptations have reflected the society of the day? Or that a belief that the original stories and text talked specifically about ‘homosexuality’ might actually be completely wrong. After all, the word homosexual did not appear until 1868.
Yet, many organised religions have continued to oppress or foster hostile environments for LGBTQ+ people. In many communities and societies, desire and difference are deadly, leading far too many to hide their light in fear of rejection, violence, persecution or even death. For others, navigating their beliefs remains a maze of uncertainty, conflicting opinions, and debates. NQV’s outstanding collection of short films, The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures, explores this truth with four short films that take us from 16th-century France to a Scout group’s performance of the Passion of Jesus in a remote village in Southeastern France.
Our first short film in The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures takes us to France in 1575. Henry of Valois, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, has just been crowned King of France on the death of Charles IX, and he is already indulging in the pleasures he has become known for. According to many accounts, Henry III enjoyed the company of men and women, and had intense same sex relationships with many men in his court, known as his mignons.
Director Rēmi Giordano’s The Vice of Buggery explores a fictional account of what happens when Henry (Stefan Crepon) is rejected by the man he has obsessed over—a man who refused his invitation to his coronation. We know from the outset that their meeting will not end in rainbows and glitter, for Henry is a man who demands fealty from his chisled male concubines. And when Henry finds his man, sparks fly as religion, desire and demand clash on a stone floor in front of an altar.
The second film in the collection is the powerful and urgent Chameleon ‘Change-couleur’, directed by Stéphane Olijnyk. Set in a restrictive Muslim community in the Ivory Coast, Olijnyk explores the secret lives that threaten individual security and the toxic religious and community oppression that leads people to become chameleons. Ali (Franck O’Neil) is different to the other young men around him. He loves to ‘vogue,’ and he dreams of escape through dance. He has a supportive family and a younger brother who looks up to him. In the eyes of his parents and wider family, Ali’s a good Muslim boy who follows scripture and never defies the rules.
But Ali has a secret. He has been sleeping with a man for months, a man who is now about to be married. Ali knows their relationship is over as soon as his lover walks down the aisle, but unlike the man who is now opting to walk away from him, he is determined not to become a chameleon: he is determined to escape. However, before escape comes into view, another man enters Ali’s life: Maël. Maël knows Ali’s secret and is prepared to blackmail him for sex with devastating outcomes for Ali. Olijnyk’s powerful short reflects a truth that far too many men endure in countries, communities, and families where religious subservience trumps compassion and love, and secrets carry potentially devastating risks.
Next in The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures collection is Alejandro Mathé’s The Martyr, a tough, at times wince-inducing short about eternal redemption. Many religions believe that pain and suffering are essential in finding God. For example, in Christian faith, the crucifixion of Jesus is seen as a pivotal event of both physical and spiritual suffering that ultimately led to forgiveness, rebirth and hope. This concept of pain as a vehicle for forgiveness is prominent in many faiths, but it entails a range of risks. For example, for many people who are told by scripture and preachers that they are sinful, punishment and pain can become a method of redeeming themselves in the eyes of God.
In a small Andalusian village, Elías knows he is different from other boys, and that, in God’s eyes, his desires are a sin. He finds Renaissance Christian paintings of Jesus on the cross or the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian alluring, as his emerging sexual desires conflict with his faith. Pain must be the answer, for only there will he find ecstasy and redemption. But as Elías pushes his limits, he finds no solace in his self-inflicted injuries. Brutal and, at times, difficult to watch, Mathé’s short film asks how religious teaching can shape a person’s view of their bodies, emotions, and feelings as they seek a balance between their desires and the imperative to please an omnipresent God.
The final film in this NQV collection is markedly lighter in tone and is the highlight of the collection. The Passion According to Karim ‘La passion selon Karim’, directed by Axel Würsten. This fantastic, beautifully performed, written, and directed coming-of-age tale sees us join a Scout troop in Southeastern France as they prepare to perform ‘The Passion of Jesus’ for local villagers.
Karim (Arman Saibi) is an aspiring young actor determined to deliver a pitch-perfect interpretation of Christ for the local audience; the only problem is that the play’s director, Matthieu (Axel Wüsten), feels his performance on the cross lacks passion! Karim digs deep, but he simply can’t find the passion Matthieu is looking for; therefore, he sets out to discover it with the help of his campmate, Pierre-Marie (Pierre Gommé).
Our pair of intrepid Scouts tries several ideas in finding the passion, from a classic method approach that sees Karim carry the wooden cross as Pierre-Marie spits on him, to the idea that the required passion might be found in masturbation. But nothing works. Nothing that is, until Karim and Pierre venture from their tent and meet a group of hippies dancing and singing near a roaring campfire. Who knew that two tiny magic pills offered to the boys by the hippies would not only help them find the required passion but also each other.
Every minute of The Passion According to Karim is an absolute joy as Karim and Pierre-Marie find their wings and discover a new passion that goes far beyond performance.
The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures is now available to rent, buy or stream on Prime Video, Peccadillo Pod and Payhip.
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