FRANCIS LEE, makes gay men feel...

It’s time to talk about that fashion design scene in God’s own country & the repeating image of Gheorghe nurturing/birthing/reviving lambs; esp. after Johnny bares the blame for the death of a calf in the first scenes of the film.

(Dir) Francis Lee’s testament to the transformative power of gay love and the nurture balance in our relationships.

Today on ''what makes gay men feel'', Francis Lee takes us on a journey of the nurture balance in gay relationships through his character Gheorghe ( Alec Secareanu ) a Romanian immigrant who moves onto Johnny Saxby’s ( Josh O'Connor ) family farm for work and revives life on the farm and Johnny’s heart that had been beaten by the cold isolation and loneliness. As it turns out, Johnny can feel a little more than the gag as he throws up the previous night’s ‘pint’, he falls for Gheorghe & even laughably tries to win him back with a ‘…got another antiseptic for the sheep...I thought you would be pleased’ line.

As gay men who are born into a hetero-dominant world, we grow and live with demons existential questions between learning about ourselves and coming to terms with it. For me and others, it was the ever hovering wringer on whether we would ever fully experience the nurture side of love that we had seen in heterosexual relationships i.e. the ‘feminine’ care our moms administer to our fathers. For example, my Dad was always welcomed with a freshly squeezed glass of juice no matter where he had been; so little ol’gay me still grappling with if I’d ever be enough for my future love, took up ‘feminine’ roles around the home as a training course. I nurtured my siblings, copied my mom’s cooking style and unintentionally picked up her O.C.D when it comes to cleaning and micro-managing everything.

Of course now in my post-conditioned mind, I understand such gender roles are thrust upon girls at a very young age and are often unfair to them; and I also understand that there was a peaceful fulfilling rhythm in my childhood home that I admire and would like to carry to a home I share with my future husband-maybe not the full chauvinistic husband-slave trope, but the ‘’I understand your needs and I will try to meet them unconditionally’’ maybe cut the hide off a dead lamb and fashion him a pair of socks.

Francis lee meets the golden ratio on what makes gay men feel in his first picture, and it can be reduced down to: the use of the wide lens so that you see the beautiful soggy landscape, combined with constant close-up never letting you forget the isolation and loneliness of the characters, details of the motions surrounding lambing season parallel to characterization, emotional arcs and character arcs, repeating imagery, excellent acting from Alec Secareanu, Josh O'Connor and Ian Hart . Lastly, the film leaves you with hope and that is what we need now.

…anyway, do not be afraid to leave below all your emotional baggage & comments on what those scenes from Francis Lee's first feature film mean to you and your experience. I can take it.