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El Houb
El Houb - The Love
Netherlands 2022
produced by
Joram Willink, Piet-Harm Sterk for BIND, VPRO (= Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep)
directed by Shariff Nasr
starring Fahd Larhzaoui, Lubna Azabal, Slimane Dazi, Sabri Saddik, Shad Issa, Yahya Gaier, Emmanuel Ohene Boafo, Britte Lagcher, Nasrdin Dchar, Walid Benmbarek, Esma Abouzahra, Rayan Belrhazi Alaoui, Mahjoub Benmoussa, Omar Ahaddaf, Sebastian Mrkvicka, Ahmed Salah, Fjodor Jozefzoon, Celion Kerk, Zouhair Mtazi, Zaman Issa Abdullah
written by Shariff Nasr, Philip Delmaar, music by Vidjay Beerepoot
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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When Karim's (Fahd Larhzaoui) father Abbas (Slimane Dazi) finds out
Karim's gay, that comes like a major shock, not only for his own beliefs,
but also if found out this could create a scandal in the Moroccan
community of Amsterdam the family is a part of. What's worse, when Karim's
mother Fatima (Lubna Azabal) is told, she wants to just break contact with
Karim, but for Karim that's not good enough, so he locks himself into the
closet under the stairs in his family home, turns off the water, the
modem, cuts the TV cable and finally turns off electricity, only to force
his parents - and later also his narrow minded brother Redouan (Sabri
Saddik) to talk things over. However, things are not as black and white as
Karim at first thinks they are, as while sitting it out in the closet he
starts to remember what a journey it was for him to admit to himself he's
gay, how he wasn't there for his friend Soufian (Nasrdin Dchar) when he
came out, how he lied to his girlfriend (Britte Lagcher), and how for the
longest time he tried to keep his boyfriend (Emmanuel Ohene Boafo) a
secret from everyone ... Films about coming (in whatever
culture) out are oftentimes a hard sell as they tend to carry their
message too much on their sleeves, tend to be self-righteous and smother
all artfulness with the issues to tackle - and El Houb - The Love
goes a whole different route though, from the mere idea to lock the
protagonist into a closet to a conscious choice for magical realism where
Karim's allowed to go back in time and interact with his memories, plus by
giving Karim much more depth than just being gay makes the film a very
interesting character study and him a very relatable character regardless
of one's own sexual orientation. And a rather stylish directorial effort
and strong cast only help making this a pretty enjoyable movie.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
is all of that.
Tales to Chill
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a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
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tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner
Out now from
Amazon!!! |
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com