Award season only just ended and people are already talking about which films to watch out for next year.
Martyr is currently making waves at the SXSW film festival, where it has been included in the festival’s official LGBTQ film selections.
The homoerotic film is set in a seaside town in Beirut. After their friend Hassane, a young man from a poor neighborhood, drowns in the ocean, his friends are forced to grapple with the sudden loss.
The funeral becomes a heartfelt farewell not only to their beloved friend, but to the beauty and sensuality of life, youth, friendship, and love.
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
In Islamic tradition, drowning is considered grounds for martyrdom, hence the title of the film, Martyr.
The dreamy film was recently nominated for the Queer Lion Award at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival. It’s produced by Slingshot Films and directed by Mazen Khaled, an openly gay Lebanese filmmaker.
Watch the trailer below.
tnguy222
The jihadists love young men who through, due to the strict gender segregation in the Persian Gulf, sexually repressed and eager for an outlet.
More so, the jihadists love young, confused, gay bottoms. The jihadists feed on those with shame and guilt, those who desperately wish to prove themselves before Allah.
Enter a gay youth who is ashamed to be a bottom and you have breeding ground for a suicide bomber or fighter.
tham
I don’t know…jihadists…shame of being a “bottom”…terrorism…
It’s a little much for me to believe.
ChrisK
Their culture is so repressed and f*cked up I’d probably believe just about anything.
CastleSF
I think a lot of gay guys, no matter which culture they are from, can identify other men whose sexual preference is the opposite of the masculine position. There is a lot of shame and internal turmoil going on when you consider yourself inferior to your partner because of your sexual preference.
OzJosh
“the masculine position”?! Really?!!!
tnguy222
@tham Salafis(fundamentalists/jihadists) are fascinating people, and I would highly recommend going to your local hardline Masjid (or moderate one), and getting to know a couple adherents.
Many possess a certain fatalism and belief in the inevitability of life circumstances which can bring profound comfort in testing times. To know one’s singular purpose in life with certainty is a somewhat enviable trait.
With that said, many are incredibly homophobic, bigoted, and downright cruel to those who do not conform to their ideology.
ChrisK
Gay and Islam usually interconnects with prison or at the end of rope.
Brody
Actually, tossing us off of rooftops seems to be their preferred means of “tolerance.”
Heywood Jablowme
Tsk, tsk.
Hussain the Canadian will be here any minute to explain to you guys that Islam is essentially a desert version of Unitarianism!
Hussain-TheCanadian
@ Heywood
ROFL – That actually made me laugh! Nah I wont do that, I mean you’re right, I totally would say something along the lines that “Islam is a desert version of communism” – Thats why I laughed, its so true.
You know me too well Heywood (wink).
Hussain-TheCanadian
Ops sorry, I meant Unitarianism, which really in practice is a form of light Socialism. Actually I just finished reading a nice book by a Marxist Egyptian philosopher; the book is titled: “Socialism and God, collective ownership in the time of Greed”, very good book.
Kangol
@Brody, just asking: can you post any links to articles or news reports in which Muslims in any of the following Muslim-majority countries like Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Mauretania, Senegal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kosovo, Albania, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Sudan, or Oman, just to pick a few, are throwing gay people off roofs? I know that Saudi Arabia (the US’s close pal, BTW), Iran, the ISIL-occupied parts of Syria and Iraq, etc., Islamicist fanatics have exacted brutal torture and murder gays. But since you made a categorical statement about an entire religion and its people all over the globe, I know you’ll be able to back it up with some proof, right?
Brody
Hey Kangol, I’m not sure why you and others like you defend a group that has demonstrated their love of murdering anyone who doesn’t hold the same beliefs as they do . . . oh wait, NOW I get it—they’re just like American progressives in their position that anyone who doesn’t tow the ideology line must be eradicated through any means necessary.
Mystery solved; carry on.
ChrisK
Gee that trailer sure explained it. Lol
jrh311
The movie was awful. Pretentious eye candy.
Kangol
Looks interesting. Another film that shows what’s it’s like to be gay in a majority Muslim country is How Gay Is Pakistan?, which is on Netflix right now. It’s a bit more nuanced than people might think.
montydaman
Is this violent? Does it show gays being murdered? If so, I don’t want to see it! I am sick of these types of gay flicks!
Kangol
@montydaman, are you replying to me? No, How Gay Is Pakistan? does not show “gays being murdered.” In fact, it shows out gay people trying to live their lives in a country that on the one hand outlaws homosexuality (though it does not outlaw transvestitism or transgenderism), but on the other hand has long taken a non-extreme approach to letting people live their lives. It does show that there are fanatics there who are threatening LGBQ people’s lives, but also that some religious authorities take a more benign approach. I recommend the film.
will44
You seem to have a new format for viewing trailers…I can’t get it to work on my Mac?? any ideas?
Heywood Jablowme
I have a quite recent PC and the screen says “Video Not Found”