8/10
Duality in a macho society
8 January 2006
The film has been shown in some festivals, but we don't think it had a commercial run in this country. We caught with it recently on DVD format. The movie, directed by Francisco Lombardi, is based on the novel by television personality and writer, Jaime Bayly, with an adaptation by Giovanna Pollarolo. The film is a frank account on the Peruvian society.

It's clear from the start that Joaquin is gay. He has been sheltered by his mother, against his father's wishes. As a way to initiate the young boy in a the typical Peruvian man's world, Luis Felipe, the father, decides to take him hunting, with no good results. Then, the father takes the young man to one of Lima's best house of ill repute, an experience that ends badly.

Joaquin likes Alejandra, the young college student. She feels the attraction as well, but Joaquin has an eye for attractive guys. When Gonzalo and Rocio appear at a disco, Joaquin feels attracted to the hunky young man. It's clear Gonzalo is also interested in Joaquin and thus begins their sexual involvement that will not produce the results either one expected. Gonzalo wants to keep seeing Joaquin, but wants to marry Rocio, but Joaquin, in a fit of anger confesses to the young woman her fiancé is having an affair with him and they Gonzalo leaves him.

The movie is a complex character study about the duality most of these rich young men of the upper crust of the Peruvian society and how they feel about casual gay sex. In a society dominated by the machismo, they must hide away in a married life that is a cover up for the way homosexuality is concealed.

The film is honest in the way it deals with this subject. Santiago Magill makes Joaquin credible in his appealing performance. Lucia Jimenez is also good as Alejandra, the girl that loved him. Christian Meier plays the closeted Gonzalo. Giovanni Ciccia's take on the troubled rich boy Alfonso is right. The rest of the cast does an excellent job in portraying all the upper class people in the movie.

Francisco Lombardi directed with panache this story about a taboo in that type of society.
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