By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Rémi Lange
Starring: Abdellah Taia | Karim Tarek | Sihem Benamoune
Original language title: Tarik El Hob
Country: france
Year: 2004
Running time: 70
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304790/combined
Bruce says: “In sociology, one must be interested in society. That is what Karim (Karim Tarek), a straight man living with his girlfriend Sihem (Sihem Benamoune), thinks as he chooses North African gay men as a topic for his video project in sociology class. This man should be wearing a ‘I’m not gay, I’m just doing research’ t-shirt.
“In the course of researching his topic Karim interviews several North African men. One claims that only the sexually passive males are persecuted in Arab cultures. Another wants to demonstrate his self-mutilation performance art rather than talk about his sexuality. Karim discovers that there are gay mosques in Amsterdam. He learns about the Siwa, who are desert dwellers. In their culture men marry men until they reach their 40’s when they begin heterosexual relationships and start families.
“Farid (Farid Tali), one of the men he interviews, falls in love with Karim at first sight. He pursues Karim energetically and gets Karim to admit that the choice of his topic was not innocent and that subconsciously he wants to reveal his desire for men. Karim tells Farid to be less aggressive and more sensitive.
“THE ROAD TO LOVE is well-meaning and definitely interesting from a cultural perspective. Lange misses an opportunity for achieving depth of understanding of his fascinating subject matter by not including more interviews and more examples of homosexuality among North African gay men. Instead we are witness to a painfully slow relationship development that would be more effective as a subplot. 3 cats”