God's Own Country
'
The Kingdom of God
2017
Director: Francis Lee
Genre: Drama / Romance / Same-Sex
Starring: Josh O'Connor / Gemma Jones / Harry Lester Smith / Ian Hart / Alec Secreanoo / Melanie Kilburn / Liam Thomas / Pazi Ferren / Moy Hassan / Navid Chowdhury / Sarah White
Two young shepherds watched the sheep on the vast meadow, silent.
You take a little look and you see two people wrestling together on the screen, and then their clothes are stripped off, and the two are bare-buttocked.
© [Kingdom of God], "Love and Kill Each Other"
Well, I thought I was looking at [Brokeback Mountain].
Only this time, from Wyoming in the west of the United States to Yorkshire in the north of England, it became [the land of God].
The stage background also ranges from the vast and cold American ranch to the small workshop-style family farm in the English town.
The boy Johnny was on the farm with his father and grandmother, who could not work, and the responsibility of running the farm fell on his own shoulders.
During this busy lambing season, thanks to the arrival of the Romanian worker Georgi.
© [Kingdom of God], you feed the sheep to me to build the wall
Not only sharing the farm work, but also the feelings between the two people for each other also grow and blossom in this wilderness.
Yorkshire's country farms, gloomy and oppressive on the one hand, and full of nature's roughness and wildness on the other, have become the perfect stage for this story.
Family farm
[Brokeback Mountain] has a thrilling and enjoyable movie beginning.
In the early morning of the sky, the layers of distant mountains and fields, flashing headlights like stars falling on the earth, probing the vast and dark wasteland.
© Beginning of [Brokeback Mountain].
The crisp sound of a softly plucked guitar sounded, and we followed Ennis to the natural ranch of Brokeback Mountain.
Probably a lot of people like me, the original concept of European farming/pasture came from [Brokeback Mountain].
Interestingly, Francis Lee, the newcomer director of [Kingdom of God], must also be a die-hard fan who has watched Brokeback Mountain countless times.
Even the dark blue sky that is slightly bright at the beginning of the film, a faint light in the dark, and a farm landscape at the beginning are very similar to [Brokeback Mountain].
© [Kingdom of God] title
But in fact, the farm in the two movies is not the same.
Family farms in Europe and the Americas, which have developed widely since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, have become the mainstream of the current farm operation model.
Unlike in the United States, which can be called a "family farm" of any size, in Europe, it mainly refers to a small family farm.
For example, in [The Kingdom of God], the men of a family are handed down from generation to generation, running the farm, and generally without the need for additional hires.
© [Kingdom of God], the male protagonist and the father with physical difficulties
Because of his physical inability to work, his father sought out the Romanian worker Georgi to help temporarily.
And the size of only about 100 Sverdale black-faced sheep is far from being comparable to that in [Brokeback Mountain].
In fact, this is also the average size of most family farms in Europe.
Moreover, I don't know if you noticed that the farms in [God's Kingdom] are mainly cattle and sheep animals, not the kind of integrated farms.
© The black-faced sheep in [The Kingdom of God].
European family farms are highly specialized, and the classification of livestock farms, grain farms, grape farms, etc. is very clear.
For example, in the French New Wave director Hou Mai's "Autumn Story", the heroine runs the vineyard herself and lives alone in the countryside, which belongs to the grape farm.
© The vineyard in [Autumn Story].
With both the pleasure of self-enjoyment and the loneliness of being alone, Hou Mai photographs that kind of farm life with great fascination.
Unlike Hou Mai, the Yorkshire farm in Francis Lee's lens has no green life and fun life.
Some are just endless spring rains, barren meadows, low, dilapidated stone walls, and damp and muddy cowsheds and sheep pens.
The haze is thick and oppressive.
© A rural landscape in [God's Kingdom].
It all comes from the director's own impression of the Yorkshire countryside, who took care of the family's farm before going to London to study acting at the age of 20.
So, as the director said, he wants to show the English countryside that he is familiar with growing up.
Not the gentle, tree-lined manor that people think of, but a completely real ruin.
Farm love story
People jokingly call [God's Kingdom] "HE (Happy Ending) version of Brokeback Mountain" and "Sweet Version of Brokeback Mountain".
No wonder. These two farm love stories, except for the ending, are really like ah!
Even peeking at each other's naked bodies while shepherding sheep, and the way the sheets rolled in the first simple and rough fight between the two were very similar!
© Two people in [Brokeback Mountain].
© Two people in [the kingdom of God].
However, from the [Brokeback Mountain] in 2005 to the "Kingdom of God" today, the ending of one south and one north can be clearly felt:
Times are really different.
Before [Brokeback Mountain], there was also a "Farm Love Story", which was the [March Boys] who was shortlisted for the Sundance Main Competition in 2003.
March, a 14-year-old boy living on the farm, has no friends and has lost his mother early, and he is inseparable from a white rooster left by his mother.
© [March Boy], naïve 14-year-old boy
Lonely, introverted, difficult to communicate with, known as a "freak", "chicken boy", and toyed with and sexually abused by the only trusted cowherd, Perry.
In fact, it is difficult to call it a "farm love story", but a cruel story of youth of a farm gay teenager.
The "chicken head in the mouth" taught to him when his mother was a child became one of the most erotic symbols in the movie.
© [The March Boys], a controversial scene
Freak, different, "stinky guy", became the label given to him by others, so he was isolated, bullied, and humiliated so naturally.
The family farm, which is dominated by dark green and yellow, is a closed and discriminatory stage.
By the 11-year-old German gay film [Harvest], it was still a lonely, silent farm boy and a closed environment.
© [Harvest], the sexual awakening of the farm boys
But behind the repetitive, endless farm labor, there is a coexistence of clarity and confusion about the awakening of sexuality.
Two boys meet on the farm and clearly feel attracted to each other, but whether they can "harvest" this feeling is another level of the problem.
© [Harvest], two people who attract each other
The film comes to an abrupt halt when the boys have no answers, and the future is still blank. That was 11 years.
In 13 years, Xavier Dolan's [Tom's Farm Trip], the owner of the farm is a homophobic and violent man, trapping the outsider Tom on the farm.
Tom learns to do farm work on the farm, helping to feed the cows, milk the cows, deliver calves, and is both afraid and attached to the man's violence.
© [Tom's Farm Trip], a farm dance, is the most sexually tense scene
The closed farm becomes a metaphor, and the deep cabinet violence and homophobia that grow on the farm are added to it, and outsiders are easily assimilated by this wild place.
Finally, in 16 years, with a Film of Andrea Tesine [When We Were 17], the 17-year-old farm boy could finally confess and love.
The strength and fortitude, muscles and beauty that I have cultivated in farm life have become the reason why I fell in love with you.
© Two people [when we were 17].
And in this year's [Kingdom of God], the farm environment is still depressed, and the farm labor is still boring.
However, love has become a warm winter sun that dispels all the gloom and loneliness in Yorkshire and dispels all the worries and doubts in the heart.
© [Kingdom of God], a handful of sugar every day
It is no wonder that some people say that since then, the era of "post-gay" cinema has arrived.
Combined with another "Call Me By Your Name" this year, gay movies may really have reached an era when stereotypes can be broken and no different from ordinary love movies.
© [Call me by your name], be so beautiful that your liver trembles
"Farm Love", as a small branch of gay movies, can also move towards more and more life and diversification.
I'm overjoyed by this change.
There is no neon glitter of the city and bars, no fashionable electronic music and boogie, the isolated environment, the repetitive labor, the grass green and dark green rural landscape -
It can also have romantic and rich love and life, and it can also shoot another kind of "minimalist" beauty.