Peace Talk

This superb short film was an "extra" on the DVD of the wonderful "Kyss Mig" that my wife gave to me as a present for Christmas last year, otherwise I guess I would have never even noticed it. This movie really wraps up the feeling of being a child growing up. It is about love, desire, hatred, distance, nearness, fantasy and, yes, war. On the outside it is about two girls playing war. Throwing hand grenades, getting wounded, holding out in the dark during a black out after the air raid. Stuff kids make up and adults seldomly understand, at least not the girl's mother. Hiding under the sheets, they discover a certain nearness that is even harder to understand for the already disturbed mother. Each of the three characters is understandable, the mother's lack of ability to cope with the daughter's possible gayness and strong character, the girl, secretly longing after her best friend, and the best friend's uneasiness with getting into this mother-daughter-conflict. It is a short that will make you laugh and cry at the same time and still comes with an overwhelming lightness. Nothing happens in this light-flooded Swedish apartment, really, but somehow the world seems to have dramatically changed when the screen goes black and the credits scroll down. Heart-warming, disturbing, great. One of the greatest almost unknown lesbian movies of all time.

I was caught by surprise when I saw this Swedish short. That's because it was listed in the Sarasota Film Festival's guide as being about "two young tomboys play war games." When I found the film on the Logo website, it had a very similar description. However, the fact that the girls play war is NOT the point of the short. In fact, it has nothing to do with war or one of the girl's mother reacting poorly to her playing war (from the Logo site). Instead, the film is about the girl's mother realizing the child may be a lesbian, as this game involves kissing and caressing. This would explain why Logo (a gay cable channel and internet site) would post the short film.

Technically speaking, the film was well done. I particularly liked how the mother was concerned about this game but wasn't portrayed as an insane homophobe. The film kept my interest throughout and covered a topic seldom discussed on film or elsewhere.