All posts by zsombor

CSD 2018 – A Moment of Remembering

Christopher Street Day has arrived in Berlin for the 40. time and promises to be bigger and more colorful than ever. The annual celebration of the LGBTQI* community is certainly one of the most fabulous events of the year, however (and this is important) it is also a demonstration. While the Western world can rightfully be proud (no pun intended) of its achievements regarding tolerance and acceptance, it is also crucial to remember that LGBTQI* lives are under constant threat in many parts of the world; that different members of the community are treated differently by the hegemonic domain and by the community itself as well; that CSD should not be taken for granted; and that looking at the history of this joyous event is a must.

The sun shines, the summer heatwave still strikes hard, and with the magic of last night’s lunar eclipse in the air everything is given for a wonderful parade in the center of Berlin. Music, dancing, pride, and a vibrating feeling of freedom will fill the streets today. This in itself is very powerful. But the underlying political drive is what makes CSD (and any other pride event) special. Granting visibility to an oppressed community (very much present tense here), reclaiming public spaces, and protesting oppression, exploitation, ignorance, and discrimination with loud music, loud colors, glitter, and the most exuberant dance moves makes CSD striking. Politics mixed with happiness and proud self-expression. The flamboyance, playfulness, and excess of expressions is beyond mere merriment and gaiety: it all is something of the core of queer politics. It is subversive, it is liberating, and it is empowering.

While the party vibes are certainly appealing, it is also important to remember what we celebrate and what are we marching for. We should honor the astonishing achievements of the community and the queer social movements across the globe because these are hard-fought achievements. But let me focus on the hard-fought element today, as I believe this is something that sometimes fades away under the pulsing beats. On this day, I would like to dance, yes. But I would also like to take my time to remember.

I would like to remember today all those who fought unstoppably for a world in which I don’t have to hide my desire and love.
I would like to remember those who passed away in the fight.
I would like to remember the first stones thrown.
I would like to remember the tears, the laughter, the sweat, and the love that characterized the journey to this day.
I would like to remember the very first march.
I would like to remember how other social movements helped our cause and how we helped others.
I would like to remember the bravery, the creativity, and the immense will-power of those who fought for LGBTQI* lives and causes.

I would like to remember so I would not forget how we got here. Looking into the past is crucial. It fights forgetting, and for the LGBTQI* community this is especially important. Our his/herstory_ies are not detailed in history books and the materiality of these is not safeguarded in publicly funded institutions. We need to remember. We must. Otherwise what are we building our future on?

But today I would also like to think of others who need our thoughts and support.

I would like to think of those whom are still fighting really hard.
I would like to think of those whose fight is characterized by fear for their lives and physical well-being.
I would like to think of those whom are running away from their homelands out of fear for their lives and with the hopes for a freer and happier future only to find themselves being detained and interrogated in their chosen land of “tolerance”.
I would like to think of the trans* people who have been murdered for being trans*.
I would like to think of all those kids and young people who have been and whom are being bullied in their local communities for being different.
I would like to think of those who still hate themselves for being different.

And as the parade begins and I start to walk and dance with the crowd on the heat-vomiting asphalt sea of Berlin I would like to keep remembering and thinking of others with whom I cannot share this joyful parade. Perhaps this is where some of the power of CSD lies.

The TEDDY AWARD wishes everybody a happy, liberating, and empowering CSD.

TEDDY TODAY: Thursday 22nd February

My oh my how time is flying – we’ve hit Thursday and are drawing near the final weekend of the Berlinale. But fear not, there’s still more premiers to catch, plus HEAPS of films to catch up on so stay tuned!

Today’s films, separated by over 80 years, look at mental health and the physical body. In both ‘Ludwig der Zweite’ and ‘Touch Me Not’, the confusions of the mind and body are analysed. Where Ludwig falls victim to psychological disarray in the first film, in the latter we see a more positive working through of the human psychology. A sign of the times, perhaps?

Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (Ludwig II of Bavaria)
Director: Wilhelm Dieterle
Germany, 1930, 132′, German intertitles

Screening: 19.00, CinemaxX 8

In the last years of his life, Bavarian king Ludwig II (1845 – 1886) devotes himself to ambitious architectural projects, which strain the state coffers to the extreme. The monarch, who is afraid of people, also withdraws more and more into a dream world at his various castles. His brother is already in a psychiatric institute and Ludwig is also eventually put under the care of psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden. The king attempted to get out from under this guardianship at Starnberg lake … “If the upper echelons don’t like you, you must go …” Taking a down to earth point of view, this story of the “fairy tale king” depicts the descent of a broken character into mental breakdown. In Wilhelm Dieterle’s interpretation, fawning courtiers and officials, the heir apparent, and the medical profession all contributed to hastening the collapse. So the dispassionate film, which did not hide Ludwig’s fascination with the naked male body, drew intense criticism from Bavaria. When Berlin’s censorship board refused to intervene, Munich’s police commissioner imposed a ban on showing it on the grounds that it was “a danger to the public order.”

Touch Me Not
Director: Adina Pintilie
Romania/Germany/Czech Republic/Bulgaria/France, 2018, 125′, English, German

Screening: 22.00, Berlinale Palast

Laura cannot bear to be touched and recoils whenever anyone catches hold of her or takes her hand. She goes to see a therapist,
and orders a male prostitute, but her body is still like an armour. In a loose succession of scenes, we follow other people in search
of intimacy. Christian, who has to live with many physical impairments, talks candidly about what turns him on, what turns him off and his love life with his long-standing girlfriend. The couple participate in a workshop on body awareness attended by people of all ages, with and without disabilities, such as Tudor. His bald head makes him seem strangely vulnerable and he has yet to discover and accept the manifold forms of his desire. The cool images and laboratory-like atmosphere of this film help the viewer to jettison their own preconceived opinions and ideas of intimacy, as it takes us on an emotional expedition to illuminate the many different facets of sexuality beyond all taboos. Each scene develops its own sense of truthfulness, regardless of whether the situations have been staged or present documentary footage.

TEDDY TODAY: Tuesday 20th February

Ohhhhhhhh! We’re halfway there! And if you’re caffeine levels aren’t through the roof, there aren’t bags the size of bruises under your eyes, and you’ve avoided that desperate late-night trip to McDonalds then you’re doing something wrong. For the rest of you hard-core troopers, in the words of the wonderful Bon Jovi, “take my hand, we’ll make it I swear”. There’s still plenty more to enjoy, including the highlight of today, Gus Van Sant’s latest job, ‘Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot’. Have a look at our YouTube channel to hear the man himself discussing the film, and his relationship with the TEDDY AWARD.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Director: Gus Van Sant
USA, 2018, 113′, English

Screening: 19.00, Berlinale Palast

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John has a penchant for off-colour jokes – and a drinking problem. And so, when somebody he met at a party suggests they go on an all-night bender in L.A. he simply can’t refuse. But after falling asleep in a drunken stupor on his drinking buddy’s passenger seat, he wakes up the next morning in hospital, a quadriplegic. Confined to a wheelchair for life at the age of 21, he now requires every last drop of his sense of humour to rediscover meaning in his existence. He is aided by Annu who brings back his lust for life, as well as Donny, a hippie whose unconventional Alcoholics Anonymous meetings draw together people from all walks of life and help them see things from a whole new perspective. John discovers beauty and humour in the depths of human experience and uses his artistic talent to turn these discoveries into brilliantly observed cartoons. Gus Van Sant’s biopic is based on the memoirs of cartoonist John Callahan. This is a tender, melancholy yet hope-filled and life-affirming fictionalised portrait of a life of limitations. As in many of his films, here too Van Sant addresses the search for identity in the environs of social subcultures and unusual milieus.

High Fantasy
Director: Jenna Bass
South Africa, 2017, 74′, English

Screening: 17.30, Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Displaying X_Qondiswa James, Liza Scholtz, Nala Khumalo, Francesca Varrie Michel © Gabriella Achadinha Keine Freigabe für Social Media.jpg

‘I’m not trying to escape who I am. This is it, I was born in this body and I can’t escape it, no. Am I angry at what it is? Yes.’ An innocuous idea, since you can assume it would never actually happen: finding yourself in someone else’s body. Yet that is exactly what befalls Lexi and her friends during a camping trip. The shock is immense, especially given the friction that had already existed before the inexplicable event: not only between the three young women and Thami, the only man – but also between Lexi, who is white, and Xoli, who is black. Under the body swapping spell, conflicts erupt that are symptomatic of social upheaval in the South African rainbow nation. Captured with the protagonists’ smartphones, what unfolds is a shrewd and cutting essay on the politics of the body, decades after the end of apartheid.

Pasolini
Director: Abel Ferrara
France/Italy/Belgium, 2014, 84′, English, Italian, French

Screening: 21.30, CinemaxX 8

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There are no indications that it will be the last day in the life of Italian writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini. As usual, he spends the morning of November 2, 1975 with his mother, before reading the newspaper and working on a screenplay. Actress Laura Betti comes by for lunch. That afternoon at home, Pasolini meets yet another journalist for an interview about his “scandalous” film Saló, o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom). In the evening, he has dinner with friends at a restaurant, then drives his Alfa Romeo to the local gay pick-up strip, where 17-year-old Pino Pelosi gets into the director’s car. The two drive to the beach at Ostia, where a group of young men appear out of the darkness … The linear biopic narrative is interspersed with scenes shot based on Pasolini’s final screenplay. Among other things, those film snippets show veteran Pasolini actor Ninetto Davoli visiting an alleged “homosexual paradise”. In contrast to Davoli’s exuberant comic mien, Willem Dafoe plays the director as a contemplative person. Enriched with many original Pasolini quotes, his intense portrayal gives us a hint of what might have been …

TEDDY TODAY: Sunday 18th February

We’re getting steamy on Sunday with some of our most sensuous TEDDY films this year! From the neon-paint-smeared bodies of ‘Tinta Bruta’, to trans MC, Lynn da Quebrada’s seductive stage performances, through to the wonderfully empowering female-thrusting of the ‘Juck’ dance, today’s selection celebrates sexuality in all its forms. Let loose your animal instinct with this feast of lusty cinema.

L’ Animale
Director: Katharina Mückstein
Austria, 2018, 97′, German

Screening: 19.00, Zoo Palast 1

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In Austria the final school exam is known as the ‘Matura’. Unlike the German word ‘Abitur’ (from the Latin ‘abire’ meaning ‘to walk away’), the Austrian term also includes the notion of coming of age. Mati wants to become a veterinary doctor, like her mother, and therefore leave the confines of her small-town universe for Vienna. But is she ready for this future? Standing in her ‘Matura’ dress with her long hair scraped back into a tight bun and her neck hair shaved bare, she’d be the first to admit she looks like a clown. Mati loves to spend time with the boys bombing around the quarry on her motocross bike. When one of the girls from her school resists when one of Mati’s mates begins sexually harassing her at a disco, Mati spits in her face. But, just like her parent’s marriage, Mati’s motocross gang also ruptures once notions of friendship, love and sexuality become more pressing. In her second feature-length drama, Katharina Mueckstein uses clear words and images and cool synthesiser beats to tell the story of an inscrutable young woman on the brink of ‘walking away’. Her parents’ silence tells us that being mature and facing up to the future doesn’t have anything to do with your age.

Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag)
Director: Claudia Priscilla, Kiko Goifman
Brazil 2018, 75′, Portuguese

Screening: 20.00, CineStar 7

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Linn da Quebrada is a black transwoman from impoverished periurban São Paulo; she is also a pop performer who raises her voice for queers of colour from the favelas. Accompanied by her childhood friend and partner in crime, black transwoman and singer Jup do Bairro, her concerts are nothing short of dazzling. Aided by exorbitant costumes and plenty of twerking, her performances are onslaughts of electro against Brazil’s white heteronormative gender order and the machismo of the country’s funk scene. Private moments reveal her gentler side: as she showers with friends or cooks with her mother the talk turns to love, racism and poverty. Archive footage in the shape of home videos shows her in intimate performances at a hospital during her own cancer treatment. We begin to realise that Linn uses radical nudity as a means to undermine accepted gender roles. This documentary also shows her in dramatised radio interviews in which she powerfully espouses her convictions about feminism and her transsexuality: not for Linn the role of a cis woman; she’d rather be a woman with a penis whose gender identity is not bound by her genitalia but is in a permanent state of flux.

Der Himmel auf Erden (Heaven on Earth)
Director: Reinhold Schünzel, Alfred Schirokauer
Germany 1927, 113′, German intertitles

Screening: 19.30, CinemaxX 8

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Local representative Traugott Bellmann is a vocal critic of society’s moral decline in general and the notorious nightclub “Heaven on Earth” in particular. Just his luck that he inherits the place – along with half a million marks – and furthermore, on the day, of all days, that he is appointed president of the Moral Decency League! And just his luck that the terms of the inheritance from his deceased brother stipulate that Bellmann has to spend every night from ten to three in the morning in his newly-acquired “den of iniquity”. Adding to the just his luck scenario is the fact that it all happens on Bellmann’s wedding day, with the daughter of a respectably champagne bottler waiting for her bridegroom in the bedroom … Shimmy, jazz, and Ziegfeld-style girl revues. With risqué innuendo and effervescent humour, the film turns elements of urbane entertainment into an attack on the 1926 obscenity law. At the same time, it celebrates cinema as a circus medium by elevating small artistes to large presences. Doors slam in the style of Ernst Lubitsch, while star Reinhold Schünzel, who would later direct Viktor and Viktoria, gives us a chic female impersonator as a jazz age gender bend.

Juck
Director: Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira
Sweden, 2018, 18′, Swedish

Screening: 15.30, CinemaxX 3

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Juck is sex. Juck is energy. Juck is protest. Juck is therapy. Juck is action. Juck is dominance. Juck is provocation. Juck is tolerance. Juck is movement. Juck is fantasy. Juck is arousal. Juck is utopia. Juck is seeing one’s self, even if it’s tough. Juck is not apologizing for existing. ‘Femininity is a word that we can fill up with whatever we want,’ they say. They fill it up with Juck.

Mes provinciales (A Paris Education)
Director: Jean Paul Civeyrac
France, 2018, 136′, French

Screening: 19.00, Kino International

Displaying Andranic Manet, Sophie Verbeeck © Moby Dick Films

Filled with expectations, Etienne moves to Paris from Lyon to study film directing at the Sorbonne. He leaves behind his girlfriend Lucie, promising to call her regularly via Skype. On his course he meets Jean-Noël and Mathias, they too have come to the metropolis from smaller cities and share his passion for cinema. Together they discuss the cinematic canon, read texts by Flaubert and Pasolini, and listen to Bach and Mahler. Jean-Noël proves to be an agreeable friend who tries to strengthen Etienne’s fragile self-confidence; Mathias, on the other hand, often comes across as stern, aloof and mysterious. Fond of arguing, he has a habit of disappearing for weeks on end without the others knowing where he is. Nobody gets to see his student film, either. Etienne is particularly crestfallen when he discovers by chance that Mathias shares a secret with Annabelle, an idealistic young woman who lives in Etienne’s shared flat and with whom he is secretly in love. Jean Paul Civeyrac’s tenderly melancholic black-and-white study of these young people’s encounter with art and life is at the same time a declaration of love for classic cinema and the city of Paris.

Onde o Verão Vai (episódios da juventude)/ Where the Summer Goes (chapters on youth)
Director: David Pinheiro Vicente
Portugal 2018 20′, Portuguese

Screening: 21.30, CinemaxX 3

Displaying Rodolfo Major, Joana Peres, Rodrigo Tomás, Joana Petiz, André Simões c David Pinheiro Vicente.jpg

The summer heat shimmers. A group of friends drives to the forest. Their bodies are packed tightly into the car, four on the backseat and two up front. The men kiss. In the woods they happen upon a snake. The snake coils itself around the young man’s foot. The girl holds it in her hands. Two men eat peaches. After the kiss, the day is over. The composition of the group in a picture frame recalls the early films of Asghar Farhadi, in which time and again the individual is also faced with the group. The staging of youth is modern and at the same time their gazes and gestures reference Baroque painting, without ever losing sight of the present day. In four chapters, 21- year-old David Vincente appropriates the beginning of all of the stories of the monotheistic religions and gives it a fresh interpretation. Reframing his-story.

Para Aduma (Red Cow)
Director: Tsivia Barkai Yacov
Israel, 2018, 90′, Hebrew

Screening: 17.00, Haus der Kulturen der Welt

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‘How do you feel about intimate relations? Speak freely, don’t hold back.’ · ‘I think it’s the highest connection between two souls.’ Benny’s hair is as red as the fur of her devout father’s treasured calf – which he believes will bring salvation. But the 17-year-old feels as lonely and trapped as the calf in its enclosure. Benny’s mother died giving birth to her, and she grew up alone with her caring yet patriarchal father. He is a figure of authority and a mentor for many people in their Jerusalem religious community. Benny becomes increasingly critical of her father’s religious, utopian nationalism and then there’s Yael, the self-confident young woman who has set off a whirlwind of longing and emotions in her. Avigayil Koevary powerfully portrays the defiance and desire of a young woman in Tsivia Barkai Yacov’s debut feature film.

T.R.A.P
Director: Manque La Banca
Argentina, 2018, 16′, Spanish

Screening: 16.00, CinemaxX 5

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A mystical place, an enchanted story: A group of knights, imported directly from the Middle Ages, go ashore on the banks of the Río De La Plata. They are searching for a grave where they wish to perform a ritual. As they pass through the jungle, things happen that cause them to land in the present day. They have sex, find a car, enjoy a sunset with beers in their hands. Then an announcement comes over the radio that makes everything appear in a different light, and there’s no going back. This past summer demonstrations took place in southern Argentina against the Italian fashion and textile company Benetton. The company owns enormous tracts of land there that originally belonged to the Mapuche people. The indigenous Mapuche have been trying to get their property back for years in order to live in a self-determined manner. The protests were associated with excesses on both sides; Santiago Maldonado, who demonstrated with the Mapuche, disappeared in their midst. “Never again” was the widespread sentiment at the end of the dictatorship in Argentina, now the old threat seems to be looming again. There is no escape from reality – one has to face up to it. The filmmaker breaks open prevalent stereotypes in order to tell his own story free of hegemonial interference.

Three Centimetres
Director: Lara Zeidan
Great Britain, 2017, 9′, Arabic

Screening: 15.30, CinemaxX 3

Displaying Mira Choukeir, Melissa Dano © The London Film School : Pierfrancesco Cioffi.jpg

A moment of floating, standstill. Four girlfriends are sitting in the gondola of a Ferris wheel. The camera takes in the view of the Mediterranean sea on the Lebanese coast, watches the girls boarding the gondola, turns a round with them, rides up to the very top. Then, the wheel suddenly comes to a halt and so does the camera. Their conversation has just comes to an abrupt end when Manal confesses that she has a girlfriend.

Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint)
Director: Marcio Reolon, Filipe Matzembacher
Brazil, 2018, 118′, Portuguese

Screening: 22.30, CinemaxX 7

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Pedro earns a living in chat rooms. The image resolution may not be perfect but when Pedro transforms himself into NeonBoy in
front of the webcam he still manages to create the desired impression. Slowly, this young man dips his fingers into pots of coloured paint and glides them across his naked body. Glowing in the dark, NeonBoy follows his users’ commands until he agrees to meet
one of them in a private chat room for money. But things change when Pedro’s sister Luzia moves out of their shared apartment and he notices that somebody is imitating his performances. He agrees to go on a date with his mysterious rival. This rendezvous will
have far-reaching consequences. As with all of the previous films by directing duo Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon, we find ourselves again in Porto Alegre in northern Brazil, where we encounter young queers in search of intimacy, community and security. The elegantly interwoven virtual images and protagonists’ stories may take us away from the real world, yet in actuality we remain in an increasingly homophobic Brazilian society to whose misfits this sensitive, affectionate portrait in three acts is dedicated.

TEDDY TODAY: Friday 16th February

So the Berlinale is now fully underway, and we at the TEDDY AWARD have been enjoying the red carpet of CineStar, where the lovely Zsombor’s interviews took place yesterday. Remember you can find those, and all our further interviews with the directors and stars of the TEDDY AWARD, on our YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD1iOuMk-g6JvV76Rj_qBkw

For today’s films we’ve got a tour of Latin American queer cinema coming up. Our journey starts in Paraguay, where Marcelo Martinessi’s lesbian drama about an older woman rediscovering her sexual desire takes place. Next, we move to Brazil, the site of Evangelia Kranioti’s ethereal documentary depicting trans and queer life in the midst of Rio de Janeiro’s carnival. And our final stop off is in Argentina, where we’re introduced to the intricate art of Malambo dancing. 

Las herederas (The Heiresses)
Director: Marcelo Martinessi
Paraguay/Uruguay/Germany/Brazil/Norway/France, 2018, 95′, Spanish

Screening: 15.30, Berlinale Palast

Chela and Chiquita have been a couple for a very long time. Over the years they have become adapted to a fixed allocation of roles. Extroverted Chiquita is responsible for managing their life together. Chela on the other hand is reluctant to leave the house, preferring to spend the day at her easel. Financial difficulties force them to sell some of their inherited furniture, each part of which is a beloved piece of memorabilia. When Chiquita is sent to prison for debt, Chela is suddenly left on her own. She uses her old Daimler to provide a taxi service to wealthy older ladies in the neighbourhood. In her new role as chauffeur, she meets one of these ladies’ daughters – the young and life-affirming Angy. The encounter lures the rather passive Chela out of her reserve and helps her rediscover her own desires. Exploring the outside world as tentatively and carefully as its heroine, the film increasingly trains its gaze on a social strata that is strangely cut-off from reality and lives without a thought for tomorrow. However, when Chela visits her girlfriend in prison, a completely different picture emerges of conditions in Paraguay.

Obscuro Barroco
Director: Evangelia Kranioti
France/Greece, 2018, 60′, Portuguese

Screening: 19.30, CineStar IMAX

Slowly and elegiacally, the camera glides at first over a forest shrouded in fog, then over a panorama of Rio de Janeiro. An off-screen voice tells us that Rio is a factory of dreams and nightmares, a city of transformations. In her essayistic film Obscuro Barroco Greek director Evangelia Kranioti explores the poetic words of her transgender narrator Luana Muniz, who is herself an icon of Brazil’s queer subculture. Amidst a somnambulistic tide of images she enters the pulsating world of creatures of the night. A stream of consciousness from Brazil’s underground flows straight into the heart of the city’s street carnival. In between the masks and the make-up, the young, naked and new bodies and a spectacular firework display, people come into view who have undergone a transformation that makes it difficult to clearly ascribe them to any gender. A white clown leads us through the film’s visual universe in which, all of a sudden, raw-faced anti-government protests also put in an appearance. And then, behind closed doors, all is bared, the ‘transvestites’ are serenaded and celebrate who they are until the dream culminates in one ecstatic dance.

Malambo, el hombre bueno (Malambo, the Good Man)
Director: Santiago Loza
Argentina, 2017, 71′, Spanish

Screening: 20.00, CinemaxX 7

Dignified, strong and formidable, and oozing erotic attraction: young malambo dancer Gaspar is at one with his passion for dance that he has made his profession. But, as director Santiago Loza makes clear at the beginning of his film, the Argentinian competitive dance malambo is an uncompromising battle against time. This is a dance to which you devote your entire life and, even if you should happen to win the top championship joust, you are henceforth condemned to training the next generation or to appearing in nightly cruise shows, for there is no possibility to take part in this competition again. Loza’s contrasty, magical black-and-white images whisk us away into the world of Argentinian gaucho dance. Billed as a fiction, his film comes across as a mixture of documentary, fairy-tale, biography and essay in which he juxtaposes the beauty of the dance battles with the harsh realities faced by the dancer himself. Gaspar’s devotion begins to take its toll on his body. There seems to be no longer anything else but malambo. In his few rare encounters with life beyond the dance floor Gaspar meets family members, competitors and his flatmate – all in the heat of his tiny apartment.