(2013, 93 min)
Country: Poland
Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Studio: TLA Releasing
Language: Polish w/subtitles
SYNOPSIS: In his fifteenth year of training, champion swimmer Kuba starts reconsidering his wants and needs. He lives a happy, normal life with his mother and his girlfriend, but finds himself longing for the other boys at the gym. Enter Michal, the guy who will steal Kuba’s affections and turn his life around completely.
REVIEW:
Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk), a champion swimmer, wants to have his cake and eat it too. He's in a committed relationship with Sylwia (Marta Nieradkiewicz), but he's carrying on an affair with Michal (Bartosz Gelner), a naïve, slightly younger fellow athlete who, initially, yearns for more affection than Kuba is willing to give in his state of sexual confusion.
As the two boys spend more time together, Michal finds the courage to come out to his family while Kuba starts falling more and more in love with his best gay buddy. Sadly, Sylwia won't let Kuba go so easily. By trying to hold on to two loves at the same time, Kuba ensures a tragic ending for everyone involved.
Writer-director Tomasz Wasilewski takes his time setting up his story and characters. The film has a slow, observational quality - prizing setting and mood over dialog and incident. What the film lacks in action, though, it makes up for with compelling cinematography and gorgeously-rendered sex scenes. The director stages intimate moments - both straight and gay - that compliment and compare to each other, giving the audience a clear view of Kuba's bisexuality and showing how he treats his male and female lovers similarly. These scenes, of which there are many, are smart, sensual, erotic and always tasteful.
-- Robert O'Neill, TLA Video (http://www.tlavideo.com)
