A MOMENT IN THE REEDS: A Heartbreakingly Authentic LGBT Drama

The story behind A Moment in the Reeds is an interesting one. Born and raised in Finland, the London-based filmmaker and actor Mikko Makela felt “compelled to fill the queer void in Finnish cinema” and so returned to his homeland to shoot his debut feature. He also cast two openly gay actors in the leading roles, noting in a tweet, “Casting gay actors for gay roles was the only option that made sense for me on A Moment in the Reeds.”

The resulting film tells the intensely emotional story of a young Finnish man who embarks on a whirlwind love affair with the Syrian refugee his father has hired to help renovate their summer home. A much-needed societal critique infused with heartbreaking authenticity and seductive romance, A Moment in the Reeds is an LGBT drama unlike any other. (Yes, even the similarly-themed God’s Own Country.)

Searching for Home

Leevi (Janne Puustinen) has been living and studying literature in Paris for the past five years when he returns home to Finland for the summer to help his father renovate their old lake house. Leevi’s relationship with his father, Jouko (Mikka Melender) is strained; Jouko, a decidedly old-fashioned man who runs a trucking business, doesn’t approve of Leevi’s homosexuality or his bookish leanings and wants him to stop shirking his mandatory military service. It’s clear that Leevi takes after his more artistic, bohemian mother, who passed away some time ago.

Through an agency, Jouko hires a builder to assist him and Leevi with the necessary renovations so they can sell the house. The agency sends Tareq (Boodi Kabbani), a Syrian asylum seeker who worked as an architect in his native land but has been unable to get the same kind of work in Finland. Tareq doesn’t speak a word of Finnish, but he does speak decent English, as does Leevi. After Jouko is called away on company business, the two young men bond in this common tongue over beers and soon find themselves in bed together.

Both Leevi and Tareq have fled their homelands in search of more tolerant environs. Yet while Leevi finds Finland to be suffocating in contrast with cosmopolitan Paris, Tareq sees Finland as a land of freedom and opportunity – at least compared with Syria and his conservative family there. These two different perspectives on the same country – that of an emigrant in contrast with that of an immigrant – highlight the stark contrasts between the two men, even as they connect deeply on levels emotional and physical.

Inner Life Made External

In his powerful director’s statement, Mikela describes his creative process on A Moment in the Reeds: “Striving for a sense of naturalism and to tell an authentic story that was firmly rooted in today’s world, I wanted to approach the writing of the film in a more collaborative way, involving my actors in crafting their characters as well as in shaping the dialogue. Inspired by various filmmakers who use improvisation in their work, rather than writing a traditional screenplay I wrote a 30-page mainly prose ‘scriptment’ in which the film’s plot and scenes with their beats were outlined in detail, but which for the most part left the exact words of the dialogue for the actors to come up with.”

As a result of this technique, the scenes between Leevi and Tareq are infused with an awkwardness that naturally evolves into an intimacy, giving the film a deeply rooted sense of authenticity that few other romantic dramas have ever mustered.

That English is clearly not the first language of either lead actor in A Moment in the Reeds only adds to the emotional rawness of their conversations, because they are not able to rely on flowery vocabulary to express themselves. Leevi and Tareq do so more simply, in stilted language, and their story is all the more impactful for it. Puustinen and Kabbani have remarkable chemistry, likely because they were both allowed to bring so much of themselves into their performances. In particular, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else being able to convey the unique difficulties of being a gay man in Syria than Kabbani, who has lived through them. There are some things that even the most method-obsessed of actors will never be able to truly understand.

While the acting and story are deeply affecting, the production values of A Moment in the Reeds occasionally leave something to be desired. As Leevi and Tareq do much of their bonding at night, when their renovating work is over for the day, many of the film’s most intimate conversations take place under the cover of darkness – too much darkness.

I often found myself squinting in an attempt to see the actors’ faces through the murky shadows, struggling to see how they looked as they poured out their deepest hopes and fears to each other. While the dim lighting did enhance the many steamy love scenes between Leevi and Tareq, it was less effective in more dialogue-driven scenarios. However, during the daylight, against the breathtaking backdrop of the Finnish countryside, the film looks positively gorgeous.

A Moment in the Reeds: Conclusion

A Moment in the Reeds uses strikingly intimate storytelling to give an important voice to the struggles of sexual and ethnic minorities in our society.

What do you think? Does A Moment in the Reeds sound like an intriguing LGBT romance? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

A Moment in the Reeds was released on VOD in the U.S. on December 4, 2018. You can find more international release dates here.