Head On
Ana Kokkinos, director.
Australia, 1998, 35mm, 104 min.
Official Web site: www.palace.net.au

Beautiful, kinetic and throbbing with sexual energy, Head On is a study of a young man 's straining to assert himself in a traditional environment which is both nourishing and constricting. The film examines cultures and generations in collision.

Ari is a strikingly handsome young gay man still living with his parents in Melbourne. Jobless and alienated, Ari feels trapped in the confines of his patriarchal Greek community, and chafes under comparisons to his male relatives. For Ari, sex is release, freedom and rebellion, and he acts out with plenty of anonymous sex and drugs. But he is not immune to the comforts of tradition, nor without loyalty to the people who love him.

This tug-of-war between tradition and freedom fuels his reckless and fearless search for self-knowledge. Head On is an exercise in fearlessness and the cast is extraordinary.

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