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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

August 14, 2009

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Boys in the ETA

Basque separatist melodrama is more than just winksploitation

by Anthony Glassman

For fifty years, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna has fought for Basque autonomy.

ETA, as they're better known, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds through terrorist acts, but they have also provided the Spanish government with a convenient scapegoat. This

was the case with the 2004 train bombing. With an election coming up, the government blamed ETA, although it was quickly discovered that Islamists had carried out the attack.

The government lost the election, and the new leftleaning leaders quickly pulled Spain out of the Iraq war. They also passed a law allowing full same-sex marriage.

ETA is a fascinating organization, forming out of opposition to the Franco dictatorship, but when you add in three escapees from a juvenile detention facility, things start looking more like a Spanish queer film--which it is.

Antonio

Hens'

mind: to find his older boyfriend Iñaki, a high-ranking ETA member. Xabi wants to dedicate his life to Basque independence, and to Iñaki.

His paramour, however, is nowhere to be found, so he and Driss begin preparations for a little freelance action of their own, a symbolic bombing that will take down a 50-

The john, however, has multiple motivations for finding Xabi, and he is far from forthcoming with his peers.

As he reads the police files, he realizes that the boy is no Basque; he has fallen in with Iñaki and ETA, but is doing it out of love, not belief. Predictably, he believes he can save him.

TLA RELEASING (4)

Xabi shows Driss his new toy in the Antonio Hens film Clandestinos.

Clandestinos is the story of Xabi (Israel Rodríguez), Driss (Mehroz Arif) and Joel (Hugo Catalán), three young men who manage to break out of a prison for young men after an extended scene in the showers

run.

and go on the

They head to Madrid, where Joel gets a girlfriend, and Driss can't decide between a girlfriend and his hero-worship of Xabi.

Xabi, however, only has one thought in

foot flagpole in Columbus Square.

Meanwhile, Xabi is turning tricks to feed himself and Driss, not to mention buying the supplies to make the bombs.

When he robs a john who turns out to be a cop, things get far more complicated. The police suddenly discover that the three escapees are in Madrid, even if they have no idea exactly where.

Things come to a head, however, when Xabi's attack on the flagpole coincidentally falls on the same day as Iñaki's planned attack on an industrial park. Driss' chubby little girlfriend realizes something is going on and calls the cops, but when the cop is one of them, he has only one thought on his mind: where is Xabi?

And when push comes to shove, can he save Xabi from himself, and from Iñaki? Clandestinos is a fun filmnot exactly the highest of art, but far from simple twinksploitation. Yes, there is ample nudity at various points in the movie, but seldom particularly gratuitous.

The ending may be a bit pat, and the character development is not the greatest, but it's all far better than Dante's Cove, or any one of a number of other pieces of queer entertainment

made in the U.S.

Perhaps the biggest problem faced by Clandestinos is that the DVD is released by the marvelous TLA Releasing, which means it will immediately be compared to their other queer Spanish offerings, like Km. 0, 20 Centimeters and Boystown. It's certainly not as witty, but a noble effort nonetheless.

eveni

Joel and Driss in hiding

Joel, Driss and Xabi on the roof top

releasing

CLANDESTINOS