José (2018)

Directed by

Li Cheng

Genre

drama film

Country

Guatemala

Runtime

1h 25m

Rated

C

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 31 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young gay man lives with his mother in Guatemala City and works a low income job. He meets another man and falls in love. The story shows his struggle with his identity and search for intimacy in a conservative and religious society.

intimatemelancholicslow-burnhonestpoignantrestrainedobservational

What happens

José is a Guatemalan feature-film social-drama by Li Cheng. It was first shown at the 75th Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori section on 6 September 2018. It is the first Guatemala and Central America film ever presented in Venice Film Festival. The film follows a young gay man who lives with his mother in Guatemala City where he works a low income job and faces economic hardship living in a country with conservative social norms. He meets another man, Luis, which he falls in love with and that changes his life through the aspect of questioning his identity and self-reflection of his emotional intimacy. The coming-of-age film grapples with the realities of being an LGBTQ+ person searching for love in a highly religious and homophobic country. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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