This is the most remarkable film about a gay child since Terence Davies' The Long Day Closes. Abdellah (young Said Mrini, then adult Karim Ait M'Hand) endures the tacit homophobia of fundamentalist culture-as an innocently yearning youth, a desirous teen, and then as a young adult college student who emigrates to Switzerland where his emotions and longing for home combine complexly. It is the story of a Moroccan boy who can't help defying his Islamic culture, simply by recognizing his own same-sex attraction. In Salvation Army, Taia explores the emotional complexity that comes with achieving gay awareness. Neither movie has received critical praise equal to the rote white heterosexual celebration Boyhood, yet each movie is a rich expression of gay boyhood. These questions arise after enjoying two superb yet unheralded films that explore gay experience: Abdellah Taia's Salvation Army and Julian Hernandez's Nubes Flotantes. How many gay film critics are there in America who defend their turf? An even better question: How many film critics are sympathetic to gay experience when it is not sanctioned by the Hollywood mainstream power structure (a la Brokeback Mountain )?
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