The lush river jungle in the northern part of Argentina is the setting for this award winning 2007 film from that country. The main character is Alvaro, who fishes and cuts reeds for his meager living. Beyond that, he coaches the local successful youth soccer team, and is otherwise a loner, not surprising for a gay man in such an isolated area. Whatever trysts he manages to have are with strangers passing through the area, usually arriving on the area's water taxi, "La León" ("The Lion").
El Turu is the owner and operator of "La Leon," which locals depend upon for their mail and trips to town, which gives him a perceived position of power and influence. He is fiercely hostile to any outsiders who arrive, and has tormented Alvaro as well, having figured out that he was a homosexual. However, whether the setting is a big city in the USA, or a remote jungle village in Argentina, it's still a fair assumption that the person who most vocally opposes gay or lesbian likely does so because he is insecure about his own sexuality.
"La León" is a tough film to rate. It deserves the many awards it has received for its groundbreaking (for Argentina) depiction of an unapologetic gay man, portrayed in a (mostly) positive and non-stereotypical manner. The photography is likely impressive to an art film buff, with its stark, barely-lit black-and-white photography with a slight sepia tone. The director lets his story be told by actions rather than dialogue (which obviously makes the relatively few subtitles easy to follow), leaving long passages in absolute silence while we try to gauge the characters' thoughts. By US standards, this gets more than a bit tedious and boring, the poorly-lit scenes and lack of dialogue make it hard to follow, and the film really doesn't cover any new ground, other than retelling a familiar type of story in a new place. There is also a rape scene that bothers me, not because of the violent act, but due to the reaction of the victim. I can't give it more than three stars out of five.
