PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ANU ALLY NETWORK

2017 was a great year for gay love. Of course, the dominant feature was the passage of the same-sex marriage act. However, from a cinematic perspective, the year was bookended by two marvellous romance films: Moonlight, which deservedly won the Best Picture Oscar, and then this film, Call Me By Your Name.

Elio (Chalamet) is a quiet-natured 17-year-old spending yet another summer in a relaxing sleepy Italian town. His days are taken up with reading, listening to music and river swimming. The languid holiday is disrupted, however, with the arrival of extroverted American student Oliver (Hammer), who has been invited by Elio’s father (Stuhlbarg) to assist with his studies.

This is one of the most sensual and beautiful films of the year. Young actor Chalamet gives one of those groundbreaking young performances that will ensure he will be a star for many years. Kudos also to Stuhlbarg playing the father we all wished we had (a late monologue will have you in tears). If it wasn’t for Moonlight and Dunkirk, this would’ve been my number one film of 2017. The adjective ‘amazing’ should only be reserved for films like this.

One of the powers of great cinema is the ability to take you into a real-world experience that is totally foreign to you, then draw out your empathy for the joys and struggles of that experience.

This is the power at the centre of A Fantastic Woman. Marina (Vega) is a transgender waitress and aspiring singer who suddenly and unexpectedly loses her partner of 20 years, Orlando, to an aneurysm. Marina’s life suddenly starts to fall apart, helped in no way by Orlando’s ex-wife and son, whose prejudices compel them to do all they can to keep Marina away from the funeral.

Writer-director Lelio (Gloria) has crafted a beautiful and poignant script highlighting the difficulties faced by those perceived as different or even deviant. And, unlike Hollywood, he has chosen a transgender actor to play a transgender character, which is to be applauded.

At the time of writing, A Fantastic Woman has been short-listed for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and I hope by the time you are reading this that it has received a nomination, as the renewed challenges of repression the trans community faces these days deserve to be highlighted with magnificent storytelling like this.