Ander (2009) User Reviews

Beautiful, moving film ...

[londonviewer · 8/10 · 31 October 2009]

I saw this recently at the London Film Festival, and the organisers tried to keep quiet about the gay element ... but Time Out described it as a Basque Brokeback - so, the cover was blown ! When the director introduced it, he warned the audience that it was a slow film, but hoped it wasn't boring. It was definitely slow, but definitely was not boring. The slow pace of the film mirrored the slow pace of rural life, and the stunning scenery helped too.

A friend commented that the lack of soundtrack was disconcerting, but I found it concentrated attention on subject of the film ...

The lead performance was outstanding, as he wrestled with his sexuality ... and the rest of the actors were very good too. Everything about the film rang true.

Afterwards the director mentioned that the film had been made on half a million euro - a truly phenomenal achievement.

Definitely worth seeing.

Unique and well-crafted

[scootmandutoo · 8/10 · 15 May 2011]

I must say that I have seen very few movies that have been paced this slowly, but in this case, it is a testament to the artistry of the director.

In a setting where the pace of life appears to be glacial and change can be a painstakingly slow process, the deliberately slow pacing of some of the scenes was just another way for this film to effectively evoke a mood. There were certain scenes where the only change for an entire minute would be a light going on, or off. Some scenes would linger with a camera a full 10 or 15 seconds after the action or dialogue had ended...just to capture a subtle mood change, or to amplify what was already there.

This is a fascinating piece of work about real people, not the porn star fantasies that populate many other glbt works. This is not to say that the 2 leads are not attractive, as another poster suggested. We all get attracted to different types and these 2 certainly found an attraction to each other.

While I thought that this movie was excellent, I would liked to have seen the romance develop in a more balanced, and less abrupt, fashion. Considering the overall way that Jose gets treated in this film, there could at least have been one truly tender moment to pave the way for how this movie eventually resolved itself.

If the movie has one flaw it was the way the 3 chapters are used to foreshadow what is to come. Once the 3rd chapter title came up there were no surprises and we knew exactly how it was going to end. While the ending made sense, and was satisfying, why the need to foreshadow it?

All in all, a very different type of glbt film that is well worth your time.

Powerful film with great impact

[nolketessa · 9/10 · 8 July 2009]

When I looked up some information on this film on the internet, I came across a statement from director Roberto Caston: "The film was born out of necessity. GLBT films slowly start to be produced in Spain, but none of them take place outside an urban context." I don't know much about Spanish film but I am inclined to believe that he is right about gay movies in general. I (female, no gay experiences… yet) am not an expert but I have seen my share of gay movies and they were mostly about pretty muscular boys or lovely model like ladies in their apartments in the city. "Ander" is definitely not. It is a story about a not handsome, not muscular, balding, smoking peasant who is slightly on the heavy side. It makes the film all the more interesting, especially since the rural life depicted here is - I would think - unfamiliar territory for the average (gay)cinema visitor.

Ander lives a monotonous life as a farmer who also works in a factory to have some extra income. His social circle is very small: he lives with an uptight widowed mother (who is in love again but dare not show this because people might see this as disrespectful to her dead husband) and a down to earth sister who will soon marry and leave the house. His only form of entertainment is drinking with sort-of-friend Peio and every now and then having sex with hooker by necessity Reme, a woman whose husband walked out on her a few years ago, leaving her to raise a baby son.

When Ander breaks his leg and can't use it for two months, his soon to be brother-in-law recommends a Peruvian laborer, who will work for a small fee plus food and board. Enter Jose. It is clear that Ander enjoys Jose's company - it is a welcome change in his dull life and he takes him to all facets of it: he looks him up when Jose is working the land or looking after the animals, and he takes him to Peio, booze and hooker - but there are no secret glances at the dinner table, no forbidden frolicking in the fields; I think simply because Ander does not know gay. He has never seen it, it does not exist in his world. The only clue we get about Jose is that he has a picture on his nightstand of him and another man on a cycling holiday; however this picture is an ordinary holiday snap - no giveaway. If anyone asks it might be one of his three brothers.

Only after an unexpected sexual encounter between Ander and Jose does Ander realize what this means, what he is. He needs a while to let it sink in and the process is complicated by the sudden death of his mother. Reme has seen what is the matter, as she tells Jose: "I suspected as much... Ander could not take his eyes off you when you were having sex with me the other day." After a quiet but at the same time eye-opening conversation with the man his mother was in love with, it is Reme who convinces Ander to be himself, simply by asking him what he will have left after his leg will have healed and Jose will no longer be required to help out.

This film stuck in my head for quite a few days - it is powerful stuff because the story is told with few words and small gestures from unknown actors (unknown to me that is) who do a terrific job. I love over-the-top pretty boys in urban gay movies but Ander occupies a very welcome spot at the other end of the gay movie spectrum. Highly recommended!

Becoming Free to Decide Who You Are...

[Bayamon_Hill · 4/10 · 22 June 2018]

Ander's life sucks. He is a middle-aged man, the head of a household that includes his mother and soon-to-be-wed sister. Never married, he goes about his day on the strictest of schedules, his mother the true head of household. It's important to accept that the culture in Spain's Basque country holds that kids live with parents until they marry, no matter how old. Ander's sister Arantxa is on her way out despite being 14 years younger than him. What's holding up Ander? He has never put a point on it, but he comes uncomfortably close to an answer once Jose comes to the farm. What follows is the "romantic story" of Ander and Jose, except it isn't. Both cultures (Basque, Peru) don't accept homosexuality, so that word is never mentioned in the film. The closest you get is Ander's friend calling them "f*gs" at the conclusion. There's not even a kiss, a true sign of intimate entanglement. You do get a scene of lust-driven action, far different from love, which culminates with revulsion-induced vomit. The two, lust/love, get conflated in this world, where it isn't the best thing to define things openly. And how to reveal any of this to the matriarch of the conservative family?! He doesn't have to, and only when all familial connections are severed is he willing to live unconventionally. The hesitation I have in calling any of this a romance is that power plays an unstated, but potent, role in this movie. Ander is the "boss" of this farm, and Jose is a foreigner with no means to survive without Ander's support. They are both lonely men and they recognize that in each other, and Ander does decide to let Jose stay with him in the end, but to call it love? I don't know, maybe in time. Only through the death of those with even more power is Ander able to decide who he is, which isn't that powerful of a message, but it is a real one for many people around the world.

I guess I saw a different movie than most

[jeffreynigro · 1/10 · 30 June 2018]

Slow. Very slow...and slow doesn't always mean bad to me but the in this case, when coupled with emotionally constipated & poorly written characters with whom I could not connect, it is bad.

It's not...awful?

[clark-96172 · 4/10 · 15 August 2018]

Very slow paced. I got some of the characters mixed up because none of them really have their own personalities. Another unrealistic depiction of gay sex but I'm used to that in films.

The fact that he spit in old boys face because he can't accept his own sexuality was abhorrent. Ugh. I've seen much better foreign gay films that I would recommend all of those before watching his one

Is that English in the English subtitles?

[DJWinston · 3/10 · 26 December 2018]

I mean seriously, who wrote the English subtitles for this movie? So bad.