First things first: No one around here condones homophobia or any legislation under its influence, and generally speaking, any statement against said legislation is one worth backing. But that's not why I'm pumped for the short film Porno Melodrama, which purports to be a direct reaction to institutionalized hate in Lithuania. I'm pumped because holy Christ this trailer.
Not even the trailer, but the synopsis:
Akvilė and Jonas were an inseparable pair when they went to school. Both dreamed of becoming great actors one day. But their plans changed the moment that Jonas met a young man named Matas and fell in love. The heartbroken Akvilė went on to work in the porno industry, yet she never forgot Jonas. Eventually, Akvilė persuades him to perform with her in a porno film. Jonas accepts, but only because the film offers him and his boyfriend a chance to escape homophobic Lithuania...
Crazy, right? But, you know, in a politically principled way:
The short film Porno Melodrama was created as a reaction to the Protection of Minors law, passed last year in Lithuania, which was supposed to ban propaganda of homosexual, bisexual or polygamous relations to minors.
After becoming an international scandal it was criticized by various human rights organizations, European Parliament and Lithuania's own President Dalia Grybauskaitė; the controversial line was replaced to "ban to spread information that would promote sexual relations or other conceptions of concluding a marriage or creating a family other than established in the Constitution or the Civil Code."
So Porno Melodrama recently (and relatively quietly) premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and has no scheduled release or air date in the U.S. But that should change once the industry gets a load of this (vaguely NSFW) preview. Is "Though art thyself though, not a Montague" is the new, "Winning"? One can only hope.
VERDICT: Sold!
[via Trailer Addict]