FEEL IT.STREAM
?

Aube Foglia

Editing

Known For

Café Désirs
—

Since the early 1990s, when a bloody civil war broke out in Algeria between the government and Islamist militants, the concept of haram—the forbidden—has demanded the rigid separation of men and women. Café Désirs is a fascinating look at a generation of young, single Algerian men as they come of age in the ancient city of Constantine, trapped between strict religious virtue and sexual desire. Three eloquent guides take us into the male-only world of cafés and hookah lounges, to talk openly about their lives, their frustrations with work and the social dangers of living in a sexually repressed society. It's a world especially fraught for those pursuing same-sex relationships, which are illegal and severely punished. Café Désirs is an engaging and complex exploration of male sexuality and gender politics in a country still struggling with the aftermath of civil war and colonialism.

Café Désirs

2015Movie
An Imaginary Tale
4.3

In this tragicomedy, Toni is the director of a staged rendition of Othello in Montreal. It is a pet project of his, financed by his loving mafia uncle. Unbeknownst to him, the audiences are also rounded up (and paid) by the same uncle. Some of them have seen every performance of this tragic play, and are understandably bored, so when the backstage romantic shenanigans of the actors result in absurd situations onstage, the audience is delighted. There are a huge number of romantic situations going on in this film at the same time. One of them involves Gaston a somewhat world-weary jazz musician, and Florence, a glamorous middle-aged woman who has been pining for him for years. Another involves to members of the musician's jazz trio. Yet another involves the play's Desdemona, Soledad, the girlfriend of the man playing Othello, who can't keep his hands off his (female) dresser.

An Imaginary Tale

1991Movie