REVIEW – SUMMER STORM (15)
directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner, Hungary/Germany, 2004

The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster
Sunday 27 November 2005 at 6.15pm only

A timely taster for Lancaster Pride

This is a recent film about a young man coming to terms with his sexuality against the background of a national rowing tournament in Germany. Tobi and his best mate Achim gradually drift apart, and the presence of a gay male team in the competition, the Queerstrokes from Berlin, adds a further impetus to the inevitable conflict.

Will our hero submit to “The power of love, The force from above”, as the song has it? Yes, of course he does, and very tenderly too. Just like they do in Beautiful Thing.

Reactions to the film among the audience in the bar after the screening were as mixed as you could imagine. Some thought it beautiful and tender (style over content), others felt the Teutonic Sturm und Drang was rather overdone (form over beauty) and others found it clichéed and schmaltzy (you can’t please them all).

Ah well, there was certainly some very fine camera work, some good if occasionally grim humour (“Bisexual’s better than nothing”), and the underlying tenderness of the story came across more or less clearly.

It was good to see that this film was part of the British Film Institute’s national programme of the 19th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival On Tour. Great, too, that The Dukes had grasped this nettle to provide entertainment for all parts of society.

With Lancaster Pride kicking off in the next couple of days, the scene has now started coming together for the area’s first ever celebration of sexual diversity. This screening was a welcome and timely taster. And there is much, much more to come ...

Copyright © 29 November 2005 Michael Nunn

Postscript:
If, as they say, you put two Poles together in the desert they will produce a newspaper, then I hope that bringing a very mixed representation of the local LGBT community together at The Dukes on Sunday night will generate reams of debate. Not just about this film, but about all the other LGBT events over the next week or so.