Despite the numerous North American military bases that curtail national sovereignty and being considered a strategic ally of the United States in the region and a tourist paradise, the Filipino population suffers from hunger and misery.
The cinema of that Asian country has produced films such as 'Soon of Macho Dancer', ('Anak Ng Macho Dancer'), from 2021, by multi-award-winning filmmaker Joel C. Lamangan, as well as 'Macho Dancer', 1988; 'Midnight Dancers' (1994), 'Burlesk king' (1999), 'Twilight Dancers' (2006), all directed by the late Mel Chionglo, and others, interested in exploring the world of dancers who pose in light clothing and even naked, for the homosexual clientele of the Filipino establishments.
The reality is that films like these expose how rentboys confront the sordid realities of poverty in the Philippines. Most of the characters in these films have in common that they are from the provinces and are overwhelmed, defeated by the sad political and socioeconomic reality of the Philippines, which is why they will be forced to travel, generally to Manila, the capital, to exercise their Prostitution as a way of escape from misery.
'AL and ER: Boys in Love' nods to these films and these "sex professionals", but does not present its narrative heroes acting and prostituting themselves in venues and clubs, existing today, as the sex workers of those do. movies, but in their own homes, selling their bodies and their orgasms via social networks, perhaps even through an erotic dance like those.
And the solution cannot be any other for desperate people who have no other way to get through everyday life. It is impossible to evaluate 2020, when 'AL and ER: Boys in Love' was filmed and released, from the perspective of the rights of LGBT+ people without recognizing that Covid-19 created an obstacle and brought a hectic, cruel year, especially for the members of this human collective. The pandemic exposed inequality gaps, leaving some more vulnerable than others when it comes to infections, prognosis and economic impact.
In countries like the Philippines where LGBT people face social stigma, moral opprobrium and legal discrimination, they have fewer economic opportunities and are more likely to be poor, even more so when some members of the community were left out of recovery measures government economics. At the same time that they were fighting against the consequences of Covid-19, LGBT people also had to face the increase in the avalanche of homophobia and transphobia that they generally suffer every day, exercised by governments, politicians and in many cases the public. in general.
Prejudices against the LGBT community were evident in responses to Covid-19 in all regions of the world. While in South Korea, social media users scapegoated LGBT people after some media outlets linked an outbreak to gay bars, and in Hungary, populist leader Viktor Orbán used health emergency powers to pass laws. Discriminatory measures against transgender people, in the Philippines, local officials humiliated LGBT people while enforcing a curfew and a gender-sensitive quarantine.
Thus arose the idea of ​​filming an LGBT-themed short film in the context of the current socio-political situation in the Philippines, which aims to creatively represent the harsh realities faced by Filipino gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people today.
Of friendship, yaoi and romance genre, 'AL and ER: Boys in Love' follows a provincial homosexual couple residing in Manila, made up of Al (Jomari Angeles) and Er (Jerom Canlas), who have lost their respective jobs and their savings and do not know how to survive in the midst of daily shortages and difficulties, to which is added the risk of dying due to contagion with the new coronavirus.
This is how Ar came up with the idea of ​​using technology and social networks to film sexual videos in which the two young people appear in different erotic poses, in order to later place them on the Internet with the purpose of selling the images to potential buyers. . However, Er opposes using this route to overcome economic difficulties for fear of being recognized, and proposes returning to the province, where they come from.
I have given too many spoilers. Not one more. You'll have to watch the short's nearly 11-minute run to find out how it concludes.
In this sense, only add the well-used silence in the concluding and defining moment between the two actors, and even with the closing of the incidental music, as an epilogue to the previous situation created at the moment of tense silence. Right there, when the moment of silence arrives, a much greater tension occurs than if silence did not exist.
Written and directed by Ryan Machado, AR + ER, as it is also known, is Kayumanggi Kolektib's first BL film, in an anthology of other short films to follow.
While Canlas and Angeles achieve excellent acting performances and a necessary control of the body and voice when they interpret emotions, such as insecurity, fear, shame and even anger, disgust and sadness, Issa Encarnacion takes the cake as director of photography.
In the midst of the pause due to the pandemic that led to the cancellation of premieres and filming and the confinement of actors and film production experts to preserve their lives, the Philippines managed to film several audiovisuals, but generally of the romance genre, many of them BL . However, Ar + Er sets the bar higher and denounces the harsh reality experienced by the inhabitants of that country, especially members of the LGBT community.