The 2019 Taiwan International Queer Film Festival runs from 8/15 to 8/25 in Taipei and from 8/28 to 9/8 in Kaohsiung. This film review is based on a complimentary media screening.

The news Lens
Date: 2019/08/20
By: CJ Sheu

The first hint we get that Gabriel’s (Gaston Re) infatuation with Juan (Alfonso Barón) may not be in vain is when Juan asks Gabriel if he’s seeing someone. Gabriel answers “sort of” and Juan follows up with, “What’s their name?” It’s an oblique yet clear signal in a film constructed out of suggestions and implications.

Written, directed, and edited by Argentine Marco Berger, The Blond One (Un Rubio 2019) spent most of its 108 minutes on furtive glances and smoldering stares, lustful envy and tension-filled rooms, and the anguished push and pull between the two men in their late twenties or early thirties.

The blond and relatively pale-faced Gabriel (an angelic name) rents a room from furniture factory coworker Juan, who like his namesake Don Juan has a voracious sexual appetite. In a film with a spare soundtrack (by Pedro Irusta), the techno music coming from somewhere in the apartment incites our and Gabriel’s curiosity; turns out it’s coming from Juan’s room, from which a naked woman (Julieta Tramanzoli) emerges, followed by an equally naked Juan. That music, the credits inform us, is called “Tecno Sex,” and indeed we hear it every time Juan has a lady over.

Having a techno-loving womanizer as a flatmate would be bad enough, but what makes it worse is that Gabriel has an obvious crush on him. He sneaks glances whenever they’re together in the living room, usually with some of Juan’s guy friends, and is pleasantly uncomfortable when Juan, reaching over, puts a hand very high up Gabriel’s thigh for support. Is it innocent? or very subtle flirting?    [FULL  STORY]