A Christmas film with a difference: In his touching, unagitated and atmospherically dense drama "1985", director Yen Tan looks back to the beginning of the HIV epidemic and tells of the difficulties of coming out twice.
When, if not now. Christmas seems like the ideal time for Adrian to put an end to all the secrecy and lies. A stroke of liberation under the Christmas tree. He has already made the long journey from his adopted home of New York City to his hometown in Texas, now all he needs is the right moment and the courage to reveal himself to his parents and little brother.
The coldness of the family of origin...
Why Adrian, who is in his mid-twenties, finds this so difficult becomes clear to us viewers from the very first scene. Adrian's father's greeting at the airport is not exactly characterised by warmth and cordiality. This son has become a stranger to him. And the forced, relaxed atmosphere at the family dinner literally chokes you off. A Christian preacher bleats from the radio.
The elephant in the room
With feigned casualness, Adrian's mum makes an issue of his old school friend and has already secretly arranged a date. The elephant in the room, Adrian's gayness, is all over the living room table, so much so that no one can really ignore it and yet everyone is just talking around it. Adrian is also burdened by a completely different secret: he has AIDS. And that was in 1985.
What AIDS meant in the mid-1980s
At that time, this diagnosis almost inevitably meant imminent death. It is the year in which the first HIV test is approved in the USA and AZT, a promising HIV drug, is trialled for the first time. And it is the year in which Rock Hudson, not only a Hollywood star, but also a national icon died and 13,000 AIDS-related deaths were recorded in the USA alone. None of this is mentioned in Yen Tan's film, not even the words AIDS, plague or epidemic are uttered.
Great actors...
Director Yen Tan, born in 1975, depicts this dramatic phase of US gay and AIDS history, broken down to an individual fate. Together with his co-writer and cameraman Hutch, he has visibly and tangibly taken the time to find not only very intense and atmospheric images in a black-and-white retro style film. The same care was also taken with the screenplay and subtle nuances in the production. In particular, Cory Michael Smith as Adrian and Virginia Madsen as his mother put so much expression into even the most casual movements and delicate gestures that a facial expression can actually tell more than words ever could.
...and sensitively drawn characters
Yen Tan does not need a dramatic twist for his story. He approaches his characters, all of them without exception, with great empathy. Whether it's Adrian's father (Michael Chiklis), the Vietnam veteran with his backward image of masculinity, his mother, who is always looking for balance, or Adrian's childhood friend Carly (Jamie Chung) - Yen Tan dedicates a scene to each of them, in which they actually express what is bothering them.
The film "1985" seems more relevant than ever
Perhaps the most frightening thing is that whether it's the stigmatisation of gay men and HIV-positive people, or the reactionary homophobic attitude of evangelicals in the Midwest of the USA or in the south of Germany (just think of Hedwig Beverfoerde's "Demo for All" movement and the "Genderwahn" debates surrounding the AfD) - many things don't really seem to have improved since 1985 and some things are already in regression.
Everything turns out differently in the end
But does Adrian finally manage the liberating blow of a double coming-out? Will it come to a big bang? This much can be revealed: It all turns out very differently, much more quietly and subtly. And that is touching and sad at the same time. Among other things, this has to do with Adrian's much younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford). Even at the age of perhaps 14, he has already disappointed his father, quit the football team, plays theatre instead - and is secretly a fan of Madonna!
Adrian and we viewers can already guess that this boy will one day have to turn his back on his parents and his hometown in order to be who he really is. The way Adrian supports him in this step with foresight is simply heart-warming.
"1985" (USA 2018), directed by Yen Tan. With Cory Michael Smith, Aidan Langford, Michael Chiklis, Virginia Madsen, Jamie Chung.
81 minutes, original English version with German subtitles
DVD published by Edition Salzgeber.
As video-on-demand at vimeo.
Click here for the Trailer.
.
