Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra is an instance of intricate filmmaking that draws together individual and familial history of a community, culture, and country to riveting effect. A comprehensive documentation from the “margins of dissident desire” and an incisive critique of shared injustices and collective guilt down the years. The affecting queer romance explores the attempts at negotiating one’s sexual identity with “discretion and care” in the face of a repressive world. It captures the tumultuous lives of three Spanish men across different points in time—1932, 1937 and 2017—who are unknowingly connected in their pursuit of forbidden desires and lost loves. It brings visibility to the lives erased and voices silenced by the society that demands conformity.
For Carlos (Milo Quifes), his homosexuality comes in the way of getting the prized membership of a social club in Granada. Sebastian (acting debut of musician Guitarricadelafuente) is forcibly enrolled in the Mussolini-supported fascist forces of the rebels in the Spanish Civil War, only to find himself continuing to hold on to his music and the trumpet while being inexplicably drawn towards a Leftist prisoner of war, Rafael Rodriguez Rapun (Miguel Bernardeau). Alberto (Carlos Gonzslez) , a present-day theatre person, in the process of delving into his own family history, gets to know of a unique legacy passed on to him by his grandfather. And, at the centre of it all is La Bola Negra, the unfinished work of Spanish literary giant Federico Garcia Lorca who was murdered by the rebels for his politics and homosexuality.
The Spain-France co-production had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and won the best director award for Calvo and Ambrossi. The duo, popularly called Los Javis, ironically, broke up their 13-year-old relationship during the shoot while continuing to stand together in their professional commitments. The film played last week in the Special Presentations segment of the Toronto International Film Festival where it took the People’s Choice award, considered a reliable predictor of the Best Feature Film Oscar. It is also Spain’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar with its India rights held by Impact Films.
La Bola Negra has tremendous ambition and audacity. Anchored in Garcia’s La Bola Negra and Alberto Conejero’s play La piedra oscura, Los Javis, along with Conejero, create a sprawling epic. The screenplay has divergent stories brought together with deftness and a studied disarray, in tune with the emotions ranging from the subtle and profound to the melodramatic. The editing by Alberto Gutierrez adds to the texture with the transitions alternating between the fluid and the bumpy. Gris Jordana’s cinematography captures the intimate emotions against the scale and sweep of the canvas with the distinct periods getting visually pinned down very effectively by production designer Roger Belles. All of it to the accompaniment of a befitting music score by Raul Refree, ranging from the calm and collected to the boisterous and rambunctious. It's all about collisions and accords.
Guitarricadelafuente and Miguel Bernardeau are powerful and Penelope Cruz, in a smaller role of troops’ entertainer Nene Romer, packs in a joyous punch. The same doesn’t quite hold true for the staid Carlos Gonzalez and Glenn Close and not for any missteps on their part. It’s because, even as the stories from the past breathe passion and fire on screen, the present often plays out like a weak adjunct, marked by a sense of deliberateness and design than the elemental energy that otherwise make the film mesmerising and immensely likeable.