Hearts of three. At the 2020 Teddy Awards, Faraz Shariah’s debut work Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings) won Best Feature Film and won the Readers Award. How did it happen that without opening anything new for queer cinema, the director made a film that so interested the jury?
Parvis (Benny Rajaipur) arrives at a migrant detention center for 120 hours of community service. For what? The director and part-time writer of the script coquettishly silent, although at the beginning of the film Parvis without hesitation to take away a bottle of champagne from behind the bar of the club where he came to dance.
Despite his Iranian roots, he does not look like a migrant at all: blond hair, cool clothes and has a roof over his head - his own room in his parents' house. Parvis was born and raised in Germany. His parents fled Iran 30 years ago. They went through fire and water until they took control of a small shop and developed it into a prosperous point. Everything he has is his direct merit.
At the migrant center, Parvis plays the role of an errand boy. When asked to act as an interpreter in the case of deportation of a migrant, he fails his job and in tears jumps out into the street.
Amon (Eidin Jalali), who has long noticed him, who lives in this center, sits down to him. At first, he mistook him for the same grievous migrant awaiting a decision on his status, and even treats him with salt seeds (“When you cry, your body loses a lot of salt”) to soothe and start a conversation.
One of Amun's friends discourages him from communicating with Parvis, warning that a "contagion" could cling to him. “Contagion” means homosexuality, which is read in Parvis’s way of moving, talking, dressing, but which he does not hide and which is easily accepted by his family.
Later, Amon will reproach Parvis for the fact that he spent it and did not say that he works, and does not live in the center, but despite this, there is clearly sympathy between the guys.
Bana (Banafshe Urmazdi), Amun's older sister, also lives in the center. She is the complete opposite of her brother, a cocky kid and a creative nature. Bana fits in easily with Parvis. After one of the parties in the shelter, the couple goes to the hookah, a trip to which her brother decided to mank. He joined them later, and the three will meet the dawn together, lying on the pavement, discussing Iran’s place in their lives. After this party, there will be another one, which will end in Parvis’ room, and the shy Amon will no longer be able to hide his feelings for him.
And everything seems to be going well, as suddenly events begin to take a not so rosy turn for new lovers and even more sad for Bana. All this will force the trio to rethink their attitude to life and the future in general. No wonder the title of the film Futur Drei c German can be freely translated as “the future of three”.
And then it is worth remembering that under the wrapper of the queer film, the director hid the story of first- and second-generation migrants, as well as newly arrived and wanting to get their lucky ticket to a new life. You start to collect the details that the director scattered around the film, and a completely different picture begins to add up.
Parvis' parents dream of returning to Tehran because they feel they belong to their homeland. Parvis himself understands his place in Germany and how hard it is to be gay in Iran, even though he doesn’t know how Farsi would be “homosexual.” His homeland is Germany, but he ceases to feel German when he hears the question of where he comes from or comments about his ancestry from a pure-blooded German after having hot sex with him. Newcomers dream of assimilating faster, but not as dramatic as the hero of Synonyms. They poke fun at the alleged sudden lack of hair on a friend's arms, as it is known that excessive hairiness scares away German women. Bana tries to dispel stereotypes about the “Oriental woman” and does not want to become someone’s thing.
Could this agenda of losing identity, wanting to be accepted by a new country, or, in other words, the "migrant card" the director threw out, have led the jury to award him a prize? After all, aside from that, in general, the film does not represent something outstanding from the point of view of directing. There are holes and unclear coincidences in the scenario.
And then you start to wonder if all these details, innovative moves and so on are so important when the director decided to share the story of ordinary people with a difficult fate. They want to start living in a new world, they do not differ in anything other than skin color and language, they left the country not because of a whim, but because of the inability to exist normally in the prevailing conditions.
Of course, the gay fleur adds points to the film. Questioning the possibility of being openly gay in Iran, the filmmaker explores what it's like to be a second-wave migrant and gay in Germany, constantly confronting stereotypes, and in the end comes to a discussion about equality in modern German society as a whole. With this, he raises the bar above the standard queer film, where the drama of accepting oneself and one’s otherness has become a commonplace.
The value of the film lies in the fact that combining so many different and complex themes, the director was able to bypass the cliché, show his vision and make albeit sad, but at the same time life-affirming film about the future, which is inherent in his German title. So, no hard feelings, but queer bear Teddy found a worthy owner this year!
