Teddy Award at Berlinale: Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings)
Faraz Shariat, the director of this year’s Teddy Award winner (the official queer award), focuses on “post-migrant experiences and stories about immigrant families. His debut feature film evolved from his autobiographical documentaries exploring his family history and from his work as a translator for refugees.”
So the openly gay Parvis, based in a city in Lower Saxony and living in a quiet housing complex, falls in love with Amon, a refugee from Iran who had to leave his country with his sister. It is the way of describing the love story of two migrants in Germany who never really feel at home here even though they are allowed to participate and/or have a permanent right to be here. But when Parvis finds out that his parents are trying to move back to their home turf Iran, he feels even more detached from everything, as if he doesn’t really belong to anyone or anywhere. There are a lot of funny moments in the movie too, especially the hilariously played-out queer swagger of Parvis (Benjamin Radjaipour), so that it doesn’t really become a tale of unwanted refugees and immigrants per se. The three also party a lot and go out and in the end, are not letting anyone dictate them where to go, where to stay, who to love and why.