Winner of the Queer Lion at Venice Film Festival, Pablos’ En el camino (On the Road) is an unfiltered, charged, and brutally authentic portrait of sex, desire, escape and connection in a hostile, violent and heteronormative world where social rules and masculine constraints predetermine outcomes and freedoms.
The drifter and the road trip have long sat at the heart of LGBTQ+ cinema. From Mike in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho to Casey in Craig Boreham’s Lonesome and William Lee in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, the lone traveller has represented alienation, chosen family, and self-discovery, while the road trip has represented escape, transformation and sanctuary. With nods to the directorial styles of Gregg Araki, John Schlesinger, Gus Van Sant, and Alfonso Cuarón, David Pablos’ En el camino (On the Road) reflects classic LGBTQ+ drifter and road-trip themes. Yet, it feels distinctly different from anything that has come before it.
In Pablos’ movie, you can almost smell the sweat, taste the dust in the air, and feel the oppressive heat, making En el camino (On the Road) a visceral cinematic experience.
As Pablos’ film opens, a young man crouches alone in the desert. The boy quivers, his head down, his fate accepted as gasoline is poured over his head and body, before the sharp sound of a match striking and phosphorus igniting echoes in our ears. It’s just one haunting image of many in En el camino (On the Road), and it sets the scene for the horror yet to unfold as we meet Veneno (Victor Prieto Simental), a mysterious young sex worker on the run with a bag of drugs by his side.
Lonely and isolated truck stops are Veneno’s home, as he sells his body and his drugs while keeping himself moving, never hanging around long enough to become a victim of the risks he faces daily. Mexico’s truck stops are volatile places where burly men, away from their homes and families for months on end, seek instant sexual gratification in desert locations where the unspoken rules of their road life are strictly observed. As Veneno hitchhikes from stop to stop, his body and supplies are his payment for travel, and we find ourselves asking, “Who or what is he running from?”
It’s not long before Veneno meets Muñeco (Osvaldo Sánchez), an older truck driver who agrees to give him a ride. Muñeco, a family man who rarely sees his wife or kids, is different from many of the truckers Veneno has encountered. He seems interested in Veneno’s drifter lifestyle and his ‘work’ whilst travelling to new destinations, with no map or compass to guide him. However, it’s the bag of cocaine that really sparks Muñeco’s interest, and it’s not long before both men find themselves dipping into it as Mexico’s long dark roads stretch out before them.
As we travel by their side, Muñeco and Veneno’s friendship develops into an uneasy relationship, with both men’s pasts never far from the surface of their hot, heavy, testosterone-fuelled yet tender coupling. But Pablos’ is in no rush to bring both men’s pasts into sharp focus; instead, he is happy to let En el camino (On the Road) simmer with tension, only providing us with glimpses of the events about to unfold as both men reach a crossroads where past, present and future collide in a final act that cuts deep.
If you are expecting a road trip where salvation, connection and transformation sit at the end of a long highway, En el camino (On the Road) is here to subvert your expectations. That’s not to say themes of redemption do not flow through David Pablos’ movie, or that there isn’t tenderness and protection threaded through the relationship that develops between Muñeco and Veneno. However, at its heart, En el camino is a film about the past catching up with the present, uncomfortable choices, and a relationship that could only ever end in a new cycle of trauma. It’s a story about hiding, running, acceptance, and escape that is both brutal, erotic, and compelling as two lost, hurt, and isolated men become one on a road to destruction.
Pablos’ film is built around the brave, intimate and gripping central performances of Victor Prieto Simental and Osvaldo Sánchez, who hold your undivided attention throughout, conveying the deep, hidden emotions of two men, separated by age but joined by the suppressed feelings they keep locked away under a cloak of masculine confidence; feelings that are too powerful to be set free in a heteronormative world. Neither can allow their relationship to become transformative, yet both need the other in ways that only slowly become clear as Pablos’ powerful screenplay unfolds.
Winner of the Queer Lion at Venice Film Festival, Pablos’ En el camino (On the Road) is an unfiltered, charged, and brutally authentic portrait of sex, desire, escape and connection in a hostile, violent and heteronormative world where social rules and masculine constraints predetermine outcomes and freedoms.
Pecadillo Pictures will release En el camino (On the Road) in cinemas later this year.
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