MQFF REVIEW: Floating Skyscrapers (2013, Dir. Tomasz Wasilewski)

Another day another cookie-cutter queer film. Actually, after Burning Blue, earlier in the day, Floating Skyscrapers (Płynące wieżowce) was the second film I'd seen from the same batch. Another manly man with man-sexing impulses that get in the way of the relationship with his long term girlfriend.

This time it's a Polish swimmer.

Again, it plays out as expected but there is a lot to look at along the way.

The eastern European gays have it a little harder up when it comes to social acceptance. If Poland's recent queer film output is anything to go by, they're still working through some pretty fundamental issues. I guess I should cut them some slack. That said, film has the power to lead thought and the money put into this sort of cinematic wallowing could definitely be put to more effective use.

Leaving aside those broader issues, Floating Skyscrapers, impresses with its production values. Director Tomasz Wasilewski and his cinematographer Jakub Kijowski do well to capture snatches of beauty in the concrete bleakness of inner city Warsaw. Those snatches are, unfortunately, wedged in between monotonous long takes of city parking lots, but they are there. If the film makers were pushing for the metaphoric, there are surely more poetic images they could have tapped into.

There is a bit more colour on the performance side. As the conflicted protagonist, Kuba, Mateusz Banasiuk convinces. He's not the most likeable guy and he's self-centred in a way that anyone facing his dilemma is inevitably going to be. He does at least give some thought to his suffering girlfriend, played substantially by Marta Nieradkiewicz. At the other end of the relationship tangle, Kuba's boyfriend, Michał, played by Bartosz Gelner, provides access to some more enlightened (though similarly complex) family relationships. Never fear though, that optimism is summarily stamped out, and a late turn by Kuba's mother seals in the film's bleakness.

As a national entrée onto the queer film landscape, Floating Skyscrapers ticks all the boxes. It will find an audience at home amongst those queers craving local cinematic representation, but they'll pull little succour from its dire outlook. Further afield, audiences will find interest in Poland's darkened otherworldliness. I dare say it's an honest representation of the situation but by the same token I'm sure there are more heartening stories that could have (and should have) taken precedence.

Recommended but not without substantial caveats.

★★★

Trailer:

Floating Skyscrapers screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.