This almost entirely animated drama provides a novel and near perfect medium for a documentary of one Afghan young boy's escape from Afghanistan with his family to a corrupt and unfriendly Russia overstaying on their visa. And then what happens when they seek to leave Russia. At the same time the film shows the protagonist's struggle with his sexuality while being a refugee and being separated from his family.
A white bisexual New Yorker falls in love at first sight with a black gay dude that he sees at a bookstore's sidewalk display, flipping through a picture book. He makes quick and unambiguous advances and is not rebuffed. Meanwhile both his past troubles as well as his new boyfriend's past troubles simmer and start to come to fore and affect their relationship.
Bowen Yang has fun (but very short) cameos as supportive gay friend.
Despite running through some controversial racial issues, the movie handles these well.
An introverted, but pretty protagonist leads the list of positives for this movie about recruits to the South African army during the time of apartheid. The boot camp is full of what we would call today toxic masculinity. Later there are moments of camaraderie, but what terror happens to secretly gay soldiers becomes a focus for the closeted protagonist as he finds himself in a relationship with another similar soldier.
I got a bit confused with who was who as soldiers looked a bit alike. Still the movie is a good watch. It is adapted from a book. It might be worth a read, too.
