This movie is the best I've seen for a long time. It is one of those rare movies where the technical details are so good that they are transparent to the viewer and the acting and directing is so good it gives you a chill down your spine.
*** the following might contain spoilers *** ( I have added the spoiler warning just to be safe but I don't really think it can be spoiled)
The moto of the movie is confusion and lack of borders, morally and psychologically, and it is expressed in a brilliant way in a lot of different levels : the hero who has to reconcile his homosexual behaviour in jail with his heterosexual identity outside it, the tense relationship between the black and white communities which come to a climax in the neighbourhood's club, the relationship of the hero to his absent father as opposed to the (black) father who adopts him, the relationship of the hero with his mother - a few times he has to listen to her having sex with her boyfreind which is a very strong way of portraying the collapse of his psychological borders, and most of all the confusion that is created when the father of the kid that the hero tried to murder adopts him(!) and trains him to a boxing fight so he will not die, even this fight does not come to any conclusion and is just blurred away with no winners or losers.
*** end of spoiler alert ****
It seems that in one short story, the movie succeeds in portraying a wide variety of complexities of life in a way which is not righteous or preaching. This is a beautiful and intelligent movie, I hope it will get the appropriate credit it deserves.
*** the following might contain spoilers *** ( I have added the spoiler warning just to be safe but I don't really think it can be spoiled)
The moto of the movie is confusion and lack of borders, morally and psychologically, and it is expressed in a brilliant way in a lot of different levels : the hero who has to reconcile his homosexual behaviour in jail with his heterosexual identity outside it, the tense relationship between the black and white communities which come to a climax in the neighbourhood's club, the relationship of the hero to his absent father as opposed to the (black) father who adopts him, the relationship of the hero with his mother - a few times he has to listen to her having sex with her boyfreind which is a very strong way of portraying the collapse of his psychological borders, and most of all the confusion that is created when the father of the kid that the hero tried to murder adopts him(!) and trains him to a boxing fight so he will not die, even this fight does not come to any conclusion and is just blurred away with no winners or losers.
*** end of spoiler alert ****
It seems that in one short story, the movie succeeds in portraying a wide variety of complexities of life in a way which is not righteous or preaching. This is a beautiful and intelligent movie, I hope it will get the appropriate credit it deserves.