Two former lovers reconnect in New York City after decades apart in director Romas Zabarauskas’ fourth feature The Writer (Kirjanik). Lithuanian author Kostas (Bruce Ross) has written a novel that fictionalizes elements of his life and that of his old flame, Russian-born Lithuanian Dima (Jamie Day). Between the two men there lingers a melancholy and an enduring spark of love.
The Writer is a loquacious, seductive affair told as one long conversation that starts in a café before moving to Kostas’ apartment, not unlike Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. The two men weave their way through multiple topics as they slowly circle deeper truths and long-held pains. Both intelligent, thoughtful individuals speaking in a foreign common tongue—the film begins with the two of them debating which language is best for them to speak in as they are both differently multilingual—they discuss everything from Russian politics, sex work, issues of immigration and nationalism, to bisexual erasure over the course of one fraught evening.
Often static and deliberately paced, there is a simplicity to The Writer that forces you to focus on the words and micro-moments between Kostas and Dima. Behind the excessive use of words there is a lot of unspoken emotion moving between them. The stage-like presentation (two men sitting at a table) is at times combative, at others flirtatuous. But over time, the conversation moves from academic sparring to more painful topics from their shared past.
It is in the small emotional shifts that the drama takes place. Watching the two men dance around thorny topics with an intellectual zeal is entertaining, but it is when they start to get closer to their feelings that the film really hits its stride. But you have to go on that journey to earn the end result. While some viewers might baulk at the professorial tone of the banter, and the deliberate stillness of the direction that favours intimacy over action, within all that is a rich vein of complex character and thoughts rarely seen in queer cinema.
By Chad Armstrong.
The Writer (Kirjanik) receives its Australian Premiere at Queer Screen’s 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney on Monday February 24th. Head to queerscreen.org.au for tickets and more information.
