More MIFF 2010: From drag queens to Dante
TO DIE LIKE A MAN The latest film from Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues is, like his first two features, O Fantasma (2000) and Odete , a queer-themed drama that borders on melodrama; but unlike his earlier films, To Die Like a Man is filmed in such a stylised and fragmented way as to drain almost all emotion from the story in progress. It opens with a group of camouflage-clad soldiers on a night-time training exercise in a forest. Two of the men creep away from their comrades, and once alone, fall into a passionate embrace which leads quickly to sex, and then to violence. Next we meet Tonia (Fernando Santos), an aging drag queen dealing simultaneously with two major dramas: his loss of status in the nightclub where he has worked for years, and a highly strung junkie boyfriend, Rosario (Alexander David), who is young enough to be his own son. At Rosario’s insistence, Tonia is contemplating having a full sex change; a procedure which is explained to viewers in detail early in t...