Good on you for buying it!
It’s available at amazon.co.uk, the US version now. A more local version should not be long to come.
No director’s cut available as yet.

Hope you enjoy!

IN

I have yet to see this film, but desperately would like to as I have heard so many good reviews.

Can anyone indicate where I can purchase this DVD…I have read there are 2 version, is this true??? I would prefer the full un-cut version so that I can see the film for its full meaning and purpose. Would prefer the Director’s cut, but I am under the impression that this is not possible.

I would also like to ‘purchase’ not download for free…then it would be the easiest way to say thanx to the Director for his efforts!!

Can anyone point me in the right direction
Thanx
S

A couple more things I need to respond on (keeps me busy during my very long editing session I am having now!).

1) How can I put this (so it doesn’t hinder my chances of becoming Prime Minister later): in my experience the most unacceptable to the general population is Truth.
That sounds heavy and general, but simplified it means that when one defends false ideals, one becomes EXTREMELY susceptible to actual Truth.
Examples? The Church and Galileo. They tolerated him, and kept up their silly indoctrinations until he actually PROVED the truth. He was then sentenced to death. It is also why we have a saying ‘Truth hurts’.
In this current extreme climate, the slightest reference to truth in illicit relationships are very dangerous and a direct attack to their indoctrinations.
I remember about 6 years ago, in a small legal case in which the accused thought it was a good idea to have his other half testify in court that ‘he didnt mind, it was ‘fine’ what they did’… well you can imagine. They passed the heaviest sentence available to them, only because they didn’t have the death penalty.
I am sure I could have put fairly extreme scenes in my film(s) and it would have only caused a little uproar, as long as it was fake, or severely punished at the end. BUT… had I put something ressembling reality in which a man the way you suggested and ‘got away with it’, something akin to a reality they absolutely don’t want to know about, I can assure you I would not be here now. Basically, uphold the false ideals or never make films again. It was all a question of balance as a writer-director.
2) I think you are seeing the character of Paco through a personal filter. I don’t think there is anything at all in the film which suggests he might have been attracted to Pablo. I am sure it is a cultural difference. Let me explain: Gonzalo’s mother (and others) saw the film and …never realised there was ‘tension’ about a possible abuse. It came as a great surprise to her when a (foreign) friend of hers suggested it. In Spain, in the countryside, there is still a very physical way of being. Hands on knees are nothing. Everyone is so utterly physical with kids, it shocks outisders (a little like men holdig hands in India for instance). There are also no clear divides at all between kids and adults: they spend time together everywhere: in bars, at work, working together, etc. I was precisely playing with the fact that Paco does strictly nothing out of the ordinary in Spain, but seems ’shocking’ to other in other countries. It doesn’t even surprise them that a kid would change after a spontaneous swim the way Pablo does. Paco was just playing with the kids feelings to get to his mother, that’s all.
3) You are right, there is no pleasing people anymore. The most utterly innocent things are now subjected to suspicion. I have just completed my 3rd feature, a light comedy based on a 8 year-old primary class. The teacher is male, and never taught before. Very funny. But, I know that despite all my efforts, the film will be seen through the filter of ‘…is this guy going to touch them?’…which is both sad, out of context, and confirms the truly sick society we live in. I can do nothing about this in my films. The filter will always be there.
4) Thanks for reminding me about the Stockholm festival! I THINK we have submitted, but not sure. I am writing to them now.

Now, whereas I can wish some things in a movie had been different, I’m not impudent enough to tell the director s/he *should* have done things differently. Especially not considering the issues you mention (I agree more or less with what you say about that)… But, on the other hand, I don’t think it would necessarily had led to (that much of) an moral uproar had there been an appropriate different ending. I was personally relieved that there was nothing more than hugs – and a hand on a knee – between Pablo and Paco; unless it’s being done really well it’s probably better not having it at all. What I disliked was just Paco turning out to be heterosexual and not being attracted to Pablo, nothing more. I found that a bit too hard to believe, given everything we see him do in the movie (his hand on Pablo’s leg et cetera), and it would have been wonderful to have a movie with someone who’s attracted to boys and is not a villain but actually a very nice guy (before the ending at least).

And besides, people with a sensitive morality would probably have been equally outraged by the movie regardless of what Paco turns out to be, pleasing them is impossible (ok it would have outraged some more people I guess). ;)

By the way, I guess there’s no chance Brecha (or En tu ausencia) will be shown on Stockholm International Film Festival this year?

I am seeking a certain reality in my films. There is no doubting that there probably are, somewhere in this society, a few that live with a quiet secretive illicit relationship, but the REALITY of the situation in this day and age is that it is all perverse, even legal it is illegal in poeple’s mind, everything is distorted, shrouded with intense fear, relationships (and I mean even parental ones) have become strained, false, risky. We are in a world where everything has become mixed and confused in a mass of hysterical nonesense. How on earth do you expect a filmmaker to shoot a BL love story in those circumstances? You are truly naive. I am all FOR making films on taboo themes, I have quite a few stories up my sleeve that cover a large gamut of the ‘unacceptable’ (like consenting incest, a truly difficult one), but am not prepared, as a first time film director to go to prison for my Art. Not yet anyhow.

Actually, to call it a disappointment is the understatement of the year, why couldn’t you have made this the first beautiful film about a non-exploitative relationship between a boy and a man? A happy ending wouldn’t have been necessary, as long as long as he would have kept his preferences when it comes to love.

Nothing amazing about posting on a site where different viewpoints are made! You should see the comment I get from the 50 to 70 year-old women’s group! :-)
About the music: the feat was not so much I wrote/played the music (which I’ve been doing for years), but that the lead kid actor played all the 2nd guitar tracks (about 60% of the music) after only 4 months guitar lessons.

Regarding your comments: let me play devil’s advocate again:
1. There are not only boys but girls on the way into town, and …if you were stared at like that, you might well stare back!
2. It is not unusual that I stare, totally fascinated, at some baby’s/kids eyes. I remember only recently being entranced by a baby with translucent almost watery blue eyes that seemed like a portal into another world. Personally I find it easy to stare at some special esthetic quality in kids that doing it with adults. I see the same with Paco in this scene: the kid comes out of nowhere with this intense, focused gaze, the way kids do unashamedly sometimes. Again, enough to lose track of a conversation about engines…
Another point is that Paco is wearing sunglasses… who knows if he not looking at a bug in the kid’s left shoulder.
3. Paco just found out his car’s not ready, has nothing to do, nowhere to go. Had it been the boy’s sister there he would have spoken to her. We don’t see that Paco WENT to the boy, probably the opposite.
4. The reason is simple: Pablo puts his head down ashamed when they pass, and the others stare at him/them: Paco’s gaze back is almost a ‘what’s-all-this-about’ look.

Either that, or…Paco, as the French say, ‘works both with steam and sails’ :-)

I understand that Paco was tricking poor Pablo, but I still think he must have been a BL, even if he was interested in Pablo’s mother as well. There are just too many times when he shows abnormal interest in boys… Even though the director said above that this was not the case, these instances were obviously deliberate by Ivan Noel:

1. Glancing at the boys at the side of the street multiple times as he walks into town
2. Checking out the mechanic’s son (he was so entranced he didn’t hear the mechanic talk about changing his car’s oil)
3. Talking to the boy in the stable (and then Pablo sees him from behind and leaves)
4. Looking at the boys who are going to the lake to swim as he and Pablo leave

I really don’t know how else to interpret these signs… Anyone else agree?

By the way, I just checked the IMDB page for ETA and it turns out Noel was even responsible for the music, and had a cameo in one of the bar scenes! Amazing what one man can do!