a short film by Gregor Schmidinger 2012 | 23 mins | Austria ›› Homophobia a profound work on homosexual self-acceptance. Official Synopsis:- Michael, a soldier in the Austrian military, has been on border duty at the Austrian-Hungarian border for seven weeks now. Isolated from his friends and family and stuck in an über-masculine environment, Michael develops homosexual feelings for his comrade Raphael. Only in Michael, Jürgen, the alpha male in the group, has found the perfect victim, delighting in his knowledge of Michael's secret, suppressed emotions and conflicts that are set to bubble up during their last night on patrol. Dave Says:- Beautifully shot and scored and rich in human emotion, here we find writer and director Gregor Schmidinger deliver a timely reminder of the cold, hard fact that homophobia all too tragically, is not confined to times past. Yet the alarming aspect of this biting short, is how acutely it illustrates the ticking time bomb of sexual prejudice and how continued acts of both verbal and physical abuse can culminate in the breaking point that is self-harm, if not suicide itself. Only here the story of Michael's journey of sexual self-acceptance takes a twist, in that Schmidinger and somewhat controversially opted to delete its original ending, leaving the depiction of Michael's growing self-confidence cast to the "rough cut" floor. Still what we do see is wonderfully played out by its largely youthful cast, resulting in a compelling open-ended work that in illustrating the ugly face of homophobia, equally showcases the inherent need for human contact and support for those who find themselves seemingly alone in the world, afraid of their very sexuality. A profound work on homosexual self-acceptance - undoubtedly, even if the jury is still out over whether or not its touching "you are not alone" closing scene, should really have been deleted or not. Gay Visibility - overt.  Nudity - bare-arsed cheek.  Overall - file under ... 3+ stars.  ›› check out the official HD print of this short, courtesy of - www.reelhouse.org/irrationalrealm/homophobia ‹‹ principal players: Michael Glantschnig / Michael, Josef Mohamed / Raphael, Günther Sturmlechner / Jürgen and Harald Bodingbauer as Korcak, the Commanding Officer. official website: projecthomophobia.com Copyright 2012 David Hall - www.gaycelluloid.com. archive reference #511 ›› previous page | back to top | print me ‹‹