Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Lorenz Hochhuth, Gustav Schmidt, Cino Djavid, Oscar Hoppe Marie Tragousti Aviran Edri
Intro:
… an emotive portrait of a specific point in the Gay experience …
Drifter, much like the Aussie effort Lonesome from earlier this year, is about feeling alienated among your own kin within the Gay community. It follows Moritz (Lorenz Hochhuth), who relocated to Berlin to be with his boyfriend Jonas (Gustav Schmidt)… only for Jonas to ice him out after only a few weeks.
What follows is Moritz’s journey of self-discovery, trying to find where he belongs in a place where his only real connection is a person he is no longer connected to. As he drifts through the Berlin Gay club scene, he tries to recreate that connection through others, like older projectionist Noah (Cino Djavid), but keeps encountering those who are in it for a good time, but not necessarily a long time.
As framed by Eli Börnicke’s cinematography and the thumping techno soundtrack, the film does an admirable job of balancing the liberation and rapture of clubbing while still showing that it’s not unusual for someone to feel alone in a room packed wall-to-wall with flesh. A lot of emphasis is placed on the consent of those involved in the scene and its many colourful activities, but in a naturalistic and casual manner, playing out more like a normal conversation (as such permissions regularly are), instead of the arduous guessing-game so many commentators try to frame it as. And as an aesthetic, it certainly shows how this is the kind of environment that could lead someone to find their true self.
But that’s the operative word: Self. Moritz entered this place on the basis of ‘we’ and ‘us’, and with that connection gone, he now has to find ‘I’ and ‘me’ again. The story about his need to connect with himself can sometimes run into the issue where, as he is still struggling to do so, the audience likewise can get hazy as far as latching onto him as a viewpoint character. Hochhuth’s performance does wonders at bridging that divide, whether he’s pining for that one-to-one non-sexual intimacy, losing himself in the beat amongst sweating dancers, or participating in S&M roleplaying that echoes The Duke of Burgundy in the way its realism allows for a dash of low-key humour at the situation. Not through an Othering ‘look how weird this is’ way, but a more humanistic ‘it’s not for everyone’ perspective.
Drifter is an emotive portrait of a specific point in the Gay experience, where the comfort in knowing what you want and going after it needs tempering with an understanding of what your own skin feels like first. Anchored by Hochhuth’s lead performance, a frank yet humble understanding of all different flavours of erotic activity, and plenty of uhns-uhns-uhns, it both perfectly captures a certain nightmare scenario for a long-distance relationship, while also offering a compassionate hand to reassure that, as long as you know that you’re you, you’ll be okay.
