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WATCH: Two soldiers connect across enemy lines in the homoerotic & mind-bending ‘Disco Boy’

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Image Credit: ‘Disco Boy,’ KMBO

You hear a movie title like Disco Boy and what do you picture? Maybe some 1970s-set coming-of-age story about a young twink finding themself on the dance floor—perhaps to the music of Diana Ross—right?

But the upcoming French-language drama Disco Boy, from emerging Italian filmmaker Giacomo Abbruzzese, is something else entirely. Though, don’t worry, the dance floor still plays a crucial role…

Franz Rogowski (the German actor last scene breaking hearts and bearing his midriff in the queer drama Passages) stars as Aleksei, a man who fled his home country of Belarus and winds up in Paris, where he decides to join the French Foreign Legion as his fast pass to citizenship.

Meanwhile, in a small village in the Niger Delta, a guerrilla fighter named Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) struggles to rally his people against the oil companies that are ravaging the land they live on.

Image Credit: ‘Disco Boy,’ KMBO

One day, when Jomo and his armed group manage to kidnap some French nationals in Nigeria, a battalion of the French Foreign legion intervenes—led by non other than Aleksei.

With this fateful meeting, the destinies of Aleksei and Jomo are merged, and Disco Boy takes a darkly magical approach to show us how their stories continue to intersect “across borders, bodies, life and death.”

And what about that titular disco boy? When Jomo wonders what he might’ve been had he been born on “the other side,” he says he’d be “a dancer in the nightclub.” Coincidentally, that’s exactly where Aleksei—haunted by what happened in Africa—spots Jomo’s sister, sending him on a soul-searching journey that blends past and present.

Image Credit: ‘Disco Boy,’ KMBO

A character study fascinated by bodies and borders, Abbruzzese’s film zeroes in on the parallels between its dual protagonists, and uses their stories to examine the homosocial—and at times homoerotic—bonds of the legionnaires and the Nigerian soldiers.

“These people have no one else; they have to become a family. It’s a very strong connection,” Abbruzzese recently told Gay City News. “It is about creating a deepness and contradictions in these characters and use the cliché but question it—so you have soldiers sleeping and then men on the bus. These men both paint their faces, but in totally different contexts. The film is built with this broken symmetry.”

Related:

Two gay prisoners fall in love in postwar Germany in ‘Great Freedom’

“Great Freedom” follows the story of Hans, a gay man living in postwar Germany who is jailed for his sexuality.

In other words, this isn’t your usual disco. Disco Boy premiered last year at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was in contention for the fest’s prestigious Golden Bear prize. It’s since received critical acclaim, and a number of nominations at both the César Awards (basically France’s Oscars) and the Lumières (essentially their Golden Globes).

Disco Boy is set to play select French theaters beginning February 2, with a U.S. release date yet to be announced—but stay tuned! You can watch the international trailer for the film below.

Related:

Gays in fatigues: 10 LGBTQ+ military films worth watching

‘The Inspection,’ ‘Tom of Finland,’ and more movies to watch that spotlight queer people serving in the military.

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