Though the work is not specifically gay-themed, there is a lot on offer in Name Above Title and Other Tales of Woe, an amazing new collection of works from director Carlos Conceição – including a wealth of hot guys and some subtly homoerotic themes.
The work of Carlos Conceição is one inhabited by handsome characters exploring the boundaries of limitless pleasure, romance, politics and even murder. Before unleashing his breakout narrative feature Tommy Guns, Conceição experimented in the realm of short and medium-length films for many years crafting work both beautiful and transgressive alike.
Collected here are six short films headlined by the medium-length (and nearly dialogue free) film Name Above Title, following the story of a handsome serial killer that unexpectedly catapults into social media fame.
Also included are the films Bad Bunny, about a wayward boy who punishes his mother’s lover; Versailles, featuring an elderly woman and a hormone-driven teenage boy at a secluded beach cabin; Turquoise Boy, a music video starring Conceição regular Joao Arrais; Goodnight, Cinderella, a subversive take on the classic fairy tale; Hell, or Pool Keeping, about a suburban kid in an unusual family predicament; and The Flesh a stylish tale of a nun and her troubled relationship with Jesus Christ himself.
Though it’s not an explicitly gay film, there is a distinctly homoerotic sensibility to Tommy Guns, an audacious and enigmatic new genre mash-up from Angolan-Portuguese director Carlos Conceicao.
Tommy Guns invokes the ghosts of Angola’s colonial past while embracing the symbolic power of genre filmmaking. The story begins in 1974, just one year before the country’s independence from decades of Portuguese rule. Wealthy colonists are fleeing the country as Angolan revolutionaries gradually claim their land back.
Meanwhile, a tribal girl discovers love and danger when her path crosses that of a Portuguese soldier. Another group of soldiers, completely cut off from the outside world, blindly follow the brutal orders of their commander in the name of serving their country.
Nothing stays fixed for long in this genre-shifting cinematic puzzle, which playfully swerves from art house drama to war film to zombie flick to escape thriller with exhilarating control.
Winner of Best European Film and the Youth Jury Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Tommy Guns has elicited comparisons to the work of Claire Denis, Miguel Gomes and even M. Night Shyamalan, and announces a bold and exciting new voice in Portuguese and Angolan filmmaking.
Watch the trailer for Tommy Guns below and click here to order your copy. The film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
