Dreams from Strangers

By: SA

After the Putin anti-gay law went into effect in Russia, Massimo (Giuseppe Claudio Insalaco), an Italian swimmer, went to St. Petersburg for a competition. While there he met Vladimir (Daniel de Rossi), a Russian guy who worked as interpreter in the Italian delegation. They liked each other immediately and eventually fell in love but they will have to face the cultural barriers that separated them and the male chauvinist stereotypes of yesterday and today. We get the idea that this trip and his realizing his love for another man is Massimo's journey of maturation and self-realization.

Director Roberto Cuzzillo shows this in the way the romance is developed between the two men we see it developing through a couple of very basic, superficial conversations and in this general political perceptions are challenged. Though the pair is eventually gay-bashed, Vladimir says that Putin is really just a big teddy bear with good intentions and that the real villain of the world is Barack Obama. It remains unclear if having a homosexual Russian say something like this is intended to shock or if it's a dialogue about culturally imposed self-hatred. I saw it as a shock tactic.

Whether or not Massimo actually grows is never really addressed. We see him running through the streets as if to suggest some sort of revelation or freedom, but nothing insightful or remotely complex has occurred. We are to assume that he doesn't know everything there is to know.

Unfortunately, inserting snippets of Russian history doesn't provide the background that we need to understand parts of the film and the director failed the chance to give political meeting to the fight for gay rights in the country. Nonetheless there is something poetic and haunting about the story. When we first meet Massimo on the beautiful shores of Italy, we understand that he is hiding his sexuality not only from others but from himself as well. He longs for something and at that point we are not yet sure what it is. When the two do get together we are immediately aware that Vladimir's conservative opinions about the homophobia of Putin's Russia are in stark contrast with Massimo's more easy-going attitudes. Something awoke in Massimo that allow him to suddenly become at peace with himself. The first half of the film follows Massimo's story-the story of an Italian swimmer whose goal is to be submerged under water for as long as possible. The first part of the film quietly follows Massimo on the beautiful Italian shoreline, discussing with us his relationship with water and his longing to accomplish his dream.

The second half fast-forwards to a swimming competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia where the two men fall in love. Director Cuzzillo intertwines scenes from other films as if to provide background for the love affair we watch. These include a letter from Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas, to show that the story of this oppression isn't the first of its kind.