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Mixed Kebab (Turkish/Dutch)

I watched a gay film after a really really long time. And I am glad that it wasn't a bad one. I was hesitant on which movie to pick up, since there was long break but thankfully, this film almost met my expectations. I guess the trick is not to have huge expectations in the first place. The film with hits Turkish background became even more appealing to me for reasons known to people who know me. The film deals with social and religious equality for gays, religious fundamentalism and about divided identities.

Film's protagonist is Ibrahim, a Turkish origin guy in Belgium who would rather be called as Bram and identified as Belgian. He is Muslim and is gay. With this the platform is set. He is smitten by Kevin, the son of a woman running a local diner. They become friends but soon we also find out that Bram is all set to marry his cousin back in Turkey. Bram's family is traditional Turkish family. His younger brother Furkan is an angry teenager, who skips school, commits robberies and roams around aimless. His father is always shameful of his acts. When Bram gets to go to Turkey to confirm his wedding plans to his uncle and his cousin, he decides to take Kevin along with him asa friend. Till this point the two guys are nothing more than friends. Their mutual admiration and closeness doesn't go unnoticed by the hotel porter who snaps a couple of pictures of the 2 men together in compromising position. It is during their stay in Turkey that finally the 2 men become physically closer as well and finally realize that they both love each other. It turns out that this porter has been folioing around with Bram's supposed to be wife. When this porter shows those pictures to Bram's fiancé, she cries but ignores because she is hell bent on moving to Europe to get alive for herself but in the process she makes sure to get a lot of money spent from Bram to keep her mouth shut about the whole gay thing on Bram. The boys come back and it seems life will be back to normal but someone from Turkey send those pictures to Bram's family who are shocked by the entire episode. His father shuns him and tells him that he is hence dead for him. Bram takes up job with Kevin's mother in their diner but misses his family. Furkan's bad ways catch up to him when an old enemy attacks him and stabs him. This is when Kevin and Bram help him and take him to the hospital. Initially awkward, Brams' parents accept him but remain cold to Kevin. The film ends with Kevin leaving the hospital and Bram walking away with his family.

In my opinion the end of the film has been left for the viewer's own interpretation on whether Kevin breaks up with Bram or not. I myself can interpret both ways and thats why I think it was the right way to end this film. Clearly Bram loves his family and they also love him but the whole gay thing is too much for them. It is now unto Bram on how he manages to balance his boyfriend Kevin with his parents. The film thankfully is not just about homosexuality. It is also about lost identities, racism for immigrants, how people long for something that they don't have. The film was interesting by surprisingly very high standard of acting by everyone involved. The film had some light moments as well which kept the overall tone of the film decent and not too heavy. Ibrahim/Bram acted really well although somehow I was not able to connect with his conflict. Kevin acted really nice and so did Bram's father. The scene where no one talks to him in the turkish cafe was very poignant.

Overall a very decent watchable film in the sleuth of crappy gay films that are served these days. (6.5/10)

Comments

mickel said…
welcome back!

it's been a while since your last review.
i'm glad you're back^^

keep it coming !!!

kisses and hugs
from Filipinas
Golu said…
Thanks. I will try to be more regular now
ILHiker said…
Sounds like you were coming off a bad streak of movies back in 2012. I get that as well, and take breaks from certain genres. I watched this one tonight. For some strange reason it reminded me of Angora Ranch. I'm not quite sure why--it wasn't plot or tone, really, though both have fathers and romance and cute blonde love interests with nicely hairy leads and such. I think it was that they both came at things from a slightly different angle that was all their own. Mixed Kebab didn't go in so many of the obvious directions it could have, and really did keep its focus on relationships amid family and cultural conflicts. I do choose to interpret that the two will stay together, though he was going to give his boyfriend some time on his own with his family. However, I'm a poorly-travelled small town midwestern boy, so I may have missed out on the cultural nuances for all of the locations in the film. Still, I enjoyed it. My raving for romantic comedies seems to be fading for the moment, thanks goodness, lol. My younger self would be shocked I like them much of the time these days. It's weird, not the aging and changing part, but the learning to accept that your aging and changing part. I'm doing fair at it, but I still think it will take a few more years of squinting before I finally break down and go to the eye doctor.
Golu said…
Yeah. Those were the days when I was still relatively new to the whole gay genre in films and was surprised every single time I would see a film with gay as central theme and it would excite me.
Of course, times change and our tastes change and things I hate then, I would probably love now and vice versa.

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