Salvation Army is a graceful, non-sentimental film by Abdellah Taïa, a courageous Arab Muslim writer-director, adapted from his controversial autobiographical novel about growing up poor and gay in Morocco. It unfolds as a series of shocks that begins with the child Abdellah pulled into an alley for sex with an adult male. Abdellah’s complicated home life and family, his longings and circumscribed opportunities are precisely revealed in sensitive, detailed vignettes; we understand his choices. The big shocks come through leaps in time that show the man the child becomes. Salvation Army screens at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23 at the UW-Milwaukee Union Theatre.
Lilting (2014), by Cambodian-born British director Hong Khaou, shows an almost un-crossable cultural divide. Kai’s unhappy 60-year-old Chinese-Cambodian mother is an immigrant to London. She’s learned just one phrase in English: “Fuck you very much.” It serves her well. Kai, we learn, is dead, through circumstances slowly revealed. The young man tried but failed to tell his mother of his love for Richard. With a translator, loving Richard tries to break down walls of language and prejudice, befriend his lover’s mother and join her in grieving Kai’s death. 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19, UWM Union Theatre.
Both films are shown as part of the Milwaukee LGBT Film Festival, Oct. 16-26 with screenings at the Oriental Theatre and UWM Union Theatre and Art Gallery. For the complete list of 25 films, visit arts.uwm.edu/lgbtfilm.
