Orpheus’ Song Film Review

The film that was watched at the Reelout Film Festival was called Orpheus’ Song. Orpheus’ song is about two friends from Berlin, Germany. The friends, Philipp and Enis, win a trip to Greece. They unpack their things at the hotel and sleep the first night there. They then decide to go on an excursion and end up getting lost on the island that their outing took place. On Philipp and Enis’ journey, they get into an argument and begin fighting with one another. As they are brawling, they stumble upon a man named Hercules, hoping that he knew how to get back to the city.

The three spent the night in a cave, drinking, eating pomegranates, and having fun. The next morning, the two wake up hungover and realize that Hercules was nowhere to be found, and their wallets were emptied of all of the money that they had. The two then explore the island some more end up at a beach and splash and wrestle in the water for a long while. As night approaches, Philipp and Enis are lying beside each other, and Philipp begins to kiss Enis. At first, Enis resists but eventually gives in. They then spend the night together. After the intimate act with each other in the morning, Enis was reluctant to speak to Philipp. It lasted for a long while after they returned to Berlin from Greece. Enis eventually gives in to his feelings for his best friend, so he leaves his girlfriend. They go away together to Greece, leaving their old lives behind.

One of the primary forms of interlocking powers related to gender studies is the representation of sexual orientation. One of the primary purposes of the movie is to experiment with the personal experience of figuring out what a person’s sexual orientation is. Enis was reluctant to interact with Philipp after the discovery of his new feelings in Greece. The film represents reality, in a way where someone who is thought to be heterosexual may not be. And that he may be a part of a sexual orientation that is believed to be a less ‘popular’ power. In Hill Collin’s article, Race, Gender, Sexuality, & Social Class: Dimensions of Inequality and Identity, she highlights that differences, for example, in sexuality, may make it difficult for some people to connect: “Differences in power constrain our ability to connect with one another even when we think we are engaged in dialogue across differences (Hill Collins 545).” In Hill Collin’s case, Enis is struggling to acknowledge his different feelings, which is why he withdrew from Philipp.

Another main form of interlocking power is possible that the film is also representing discrimination. Nearing the end of the movie, Enis had broken up with his girlfriend in order to be with Philipp. His girlfriend was clearly not pleased with the situation due to Enis’ breaking up with her, possibly because he was leaving her for another man. However, the movie did not specify this. A possible reason why discrimination against sexual orientation is because of how socially and historically constructed it is, and there are still many older and younger people who are against it. The situation has gotten so worse that there are anti-gay speech media platforms, such as websites. (Cooper 244). Although different sexual orientations have become more mainstream, there are still some countries that do not allow it, or it is uncommon. 

As the audience can see, the two main characters, in the beginning, are straight, white males. Whiteness is socially constructed and has a very pronounced position within social boundaries (Daniels 43). There could be many reasons as to why the producers of the film chose two white men to be the main characters. Even if the two actors are revealed as gay, there is an excellent possibility that they will be accepted by the majority of the audience, just because of their skin colour. There are slight hints of white supremacy due to almost all characters being of Caucasian background. Daniels says in her article, The Intersectional Internet. Race, Sex, Class, and Culture Online: “Whiteness shapes housing, education, politics, law, social science research methods, and indeed, frames much of our (mis)understanding of U.S. society (Daniels 43).” Caucasians first commenced the majority of aspects of life; “Whiteness is crucial in structuring the lived experiences of White women across a variety of contexts (Daniels 44).” Daniel’s article is mainly about women and feminism, but it can be related to the case of Orpheus’ Song; for example, whiteness is crucial in structuring experiences of white men as well. 

What was done well in the film was that the producers used two countries that do not have compulsory heterosexuality. Compulsory heterosexuality is when a country essentially encourages heterosexuality, to the point where it is inevitable and inescapable. Having the locations in which Orpheus’ Song was filmed not have compulsory heterosexuality; it gave the producers the freedom of using a sexual orientation other than heterosexuality. With both Germany and Greece not being strict about sexual orientation, it allowed the situation in the movie to be more accepted.

Overall, Orpheus’ Song was produced well. They did an excellent job of progressively making the two friends become closer emotionally leading up to their sexual acts. The producers made it clear that they support the LGBTQ+ community. The film identified the tension between the two friends after they kissed, and how the stigma of homosexuality was evidently affecting Enis. The growing relationship between the two encapsulated the audience, which made the film so well produced.

Works Cited

Cooper, Cynthia. Race/Gender/Class/Media 3.0: Considering Diversity Across Content, Audiences and Production. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2013.

Daniels, Jessie. The Intersectional Internet. Race, Sex, Class, and Culture Online. Peter Lang Publishing, n.d.

Hill Collins, Patricia. Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class: Dimensions of Inequality and Identity. 2nd ed., Sage Publications, 2016.

At the 2020 ReelOut Film Festival, I watched the movie ‘Orpheus’ Song’, directed by Tor Iben. In this blog post I will give a description of the film and then discuss the positives and negatives of the film overall. In my own opinion, I think that the film was beautifully shot, and the actors did a fantastic job portraying their roles. Although I did enjoy the movie, there were several aspects that I questioned including the lack of people of colour in the film, the continued use of binary thinking, and the toxic masculinity that displayed.

            The film begins and the audience quickly learns that the film takes place in Berlin and the two main characters are Philipp and Enis. The two young, white males are friends that workout at a gym together. Enis has a girlfriend and is studying for university, while Philipp is single, and on the lookout for jobs. While Philipp is getting ready to leave the gym, he fills out an online questionnaire that asks him what the capital of a European City is. He chooses the correct answer and has been entered into a contest to win a 7-day trip to Greece. The next day during Philipp’s workout with Enis, he receives an email stating that he’s won! Enis suggests that he calls to confirm and make sure that it is not a scam, and while on the phone Philipp tells them that himself and Enis will be coming. At first, Enis declines and tells Philipp that he cannot attend, but eventually he agrees. Once they arrive in Greece, they head to their hotel and begin exploring the city. After a few days, they decide to go on a hike. They get lost and end up sleeping outside in an abandoned village. The next day, they continue on hiking until they get into an argument and start fighting. While they are fighting, a person playing the ukulele walks by. Enis and Philipp stop fighting and introduce themselves to the person and ask them for help. The person introduces himself as Hercules and tells them he knows where to go. Hercules shows them to the cave that he lives in and offers them pomegranate and alcohol. Philipp reaches for a pomegranate, but Hercules stops him and tells them that that pomegranate is cursed by a river nymph and who ever eats will have something happen to them. Hercules goes on to tell them he can’t remember whether or not the person will die or fall in love after they eat it. The three of them sit in the cave and begin to take shots of the alcohol and eventually fall asleep in the cave. Enis and Phillip wake up to find that Hercules has ran off with their money. They pack up and head out of the cave and Philipp grabs one of the cursed pomegranates and a bottle of the alcohol. They keep hiking on and eventually they get hungry so Enis and Phillip eat the pomegranate and drink the bottle of alcohol. They reach a beach and begin to swim and wrestle in the water. After a little bit, Philipp kisses Enis. At first Enis resists, but then gives in. The scene ends with Philipp and Enis making out on the beach. They wake up in the morning on the beach and Enis does not seem to be pleased. They head back to the hotel and Enis wants to go to the airport right away although they have plenty of time. Once they arrive back in Berlin, Enis completely starts to avoid Philipp. Philipp is very heartbroken and hurt by Enis. Philipp tries calling him to figure things out but Enis won’t talk to him. Eventually, Philipp decides to go back to Greece to get away from the pain Enis was causing him. Philipp convinced Enis to meet him at the park and tells him goodbye. Enis is confused at first but then realizes what is happening. They hug and embrace each other for several minutes. Without Philipp knowing, Enis decides to leave his girlfriend, his education, and life behind and go with Philipp to Greece. He surprises Philipp at the airport and then the film has ended.

            As you can see from the plot summary, the main characters experience and show very real human emotions and interactions with each other. Enis struggles with his sexual orientation and is troubled with his relationships with his girlfriend and with Philipp once the two of them had a sexual encounter. Queer is defined as “Non-normative sexual desires and sexual practices, can encompass gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities” in our OnQ glossary. From viewing the film, the audience can see that the main characters have a close friendship that became a queer relationship after their time on the beach. At the end of the film, Philipp has a great struggle with the way that Enis is treating him. He shows the audience heartbreak and confusion and shows emotions that are relatable to people of all sexual orientations.            

Despite the realness of the emotions shown in the film and the inclusion of a queer relationship, there are things this film is lacking. First, the film has almost zero people of colour representation. Every character that I can think of was white, from the photographer, to the girlfriend, to the hotel workers, to Hercules, to the main characters. There was no a single person of colour I saw in the film, and if there was, their role was not large enough for me to even remember. The film also used solely binary thinking regarding the roles of the women and men in the film. The men were shown to be working out, or being educated, or owning a company, while the women were shown to love dresses and modeling or as a taken woman for one of the characters to try and impress. That also brings me to my next point about the display of toxic masculinity. Philipp sees a woman in the hotel and decides he would like to impress her. He flirts with her although she is not into it and sees her as something to achieve/win. When he’s back in his hotel room, the woman’s husband come up and beats Philipp up. This aggression is continued when Philipp tries to go back and fight the guy and figure out what room their in. He even gets aggressive with the person working at the front desk. Instead of having these characters be diplomatic and civil, the characters are full of testosterone and aggression with each other.

Definition: Taken from the GNDS125 OnQ Glossary