13.11.2022

Mezipatra reviews

Mezipatra is a queer film festival that happens every year in Prague and Brno in the Czech republic.

This year was my first time as a volunteer, last year I was just a visitor. And last year I saw great movies like La Fracture and Jumbo. So this year came up a little short, especially since I scheduled myself way too many volunteer shifts without considering which movies I wanted to see. Learning for next year, I guess.

I missed like a minute at the beginning or end of some of these becausse of volunteer duties. I don't think I missed anything important??? If any of these movies had a Marvel-style post credits scene, let me know.

Rated in the way competition movies are rated - 1 is the best, 5 is the worst.

Movies I saw:

Concerned Citizen / אזרח מודאג

A still from Concerned Citizen. A white man is yelling at a cop while two black men stand behind him confused.

This was the opening movie and it was not a very good start to be honest. This movie had the worst combination of traits: it was both boring and controversial. Some people interpreted the movie to be racist, but I don't think it was. The main characters were clearly meant to be unsympathetic - the scene where the main guy confronts the cop at the end was proof of that. I thought the film was cringe-funny in a few places, like the scene with the therapist where he pretends the pillow is a victim of police brutality (no one else probably thought this). But I still didn’t like this movie. I felt it was not effective at conveying a point or emotion and also boring.

Rating: 4

Swing Ride / Calcinculo

A still from Swing Ride. It shows the two main characters, a trans woman and a young fat girl, with their faces close to each other.

This ended up being the only movie that I actually exchanged my voucher for a ticket. I liked it somewhat. I felt like the ending was pretty random. The trans main character felt kind of stereotypical, but not entirely. I enjoyed the complex relationship between the leads.

Rating: 2

All Our Fears / Wszystkie nasze strachy

A still from All Our Fears. A man is walking away from a motobike. He is wearing an adidas tracksuit with pride flag stripes on the side and a large cross necklace.

This movie made me cry a lot. It picks a theme (can you be both gay and polish catholic) and sticks to it hard. Gay tragedy, but the ending leans bittersweet. Also the main character's outfit is peak "character design". (He's based on a real guy.)

Rating: 1

Will-o'-the-Wisp / Fogo-Fátuo

A still from Will-o'-the-Wisp. A black man in a firefighter uniform is holding a white curly haired man in his underwear upside down over his shoulder. They're in a locker room and there's a naked man behind them.

This movie was clearly not for me. Very gay male. Lots of penis. It kind of felt like the final third was missing. At least the musical sequences were fun.

Rating: 4


Bonus non-competition picture: Dating Amber

A still from Dating Amber. A worried looking teen boy is riding a bike with a teen girl spreading her arms happily behind him.

Dealing with internalized homophobia as a fun teen movie. I liked this one, not much more to it. The girl Amber dates looks so much like a person I know irl it freaked me out.

Rating: 1


Mezipatra ended with a massive disappointment for me, when I bought a ticket for the victorious movie, but misread the time it started, and ended up missing it. And it was the movie that I was excited to see but kept missing all festival – Five Devils (Les Cinq diables). I might have cried because of that. If you know where to get that movie (legally or not) I'll send you 200kč.

A still from The Five Devils. A woman's face is lit in red with a bunch of blurred copies of her face around her.

PS: I finally saw Les Cinq diables

I finally saw Five Devils this summer when it was shown at an outdoor cinema as part of Prague Pride. It was good but I hyped it up too much in my head.