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
Orpheus' Song Film Review 