During Nick's absence, his girlfriend Mary calls on his best friend Sidney, to help him in his depression. Sid, who is himself in a relationship, uses the chance to rape Mary.

When Nick returns, he slowly discovers the truth behind Mary's changed behaviour. This is new territory for the young man who reacts first with jealousy, then a thirst for revenge. His relationships with both Mary and Sid go awry. The machos seek to clear things up violently, whilst Mary is neglected. And of course, things go wrong, and soon things reach boiling point.

• Desolation Angels is neither feminist nor intellectual, but a low-budget movie straight from the heart. The target audience consists not of women, but of guys who have not the faintest idea of psychological cases during or after a sexual attack. Indeed, the protagonist, the boyfriend of a victim, behaves so insensitively and egocentrically, that for those of the audience who identify with the victim will find this very painful. There are moments when a girlfriend of Mary's sets the philosophy of life back to order, but unfortunately, Mary's character generally ends up in the background and is only used when the storyline, based around Nick, would otherwise hardly be possible. Radically concentrating on a chauvinist in need of education has, unfortunately, a negative impact on the conscience of the protagonist: he understands less and less and, after this film, a simple-minded member of the audience probably won't understand much more either.

Instead the audience is bombarded with a kaleidoscope of deceptive evaluations of the subject of rape, which bravely reveals an accurate observation of gruesome reality. But all too often, what is missing is the destruction of these views, so that it is hard to make out whether the film is trying to reflect a screwed-up world, and maybe improve it, or whether it just signals a willingness, but is still suffering from general misunderstanding.

Initially, Nick is revealed as paranoid and jealous. He does not realise that this is about a violent attack, not sex. So he attacks his girlfriend for going alone to his best friend's apartment and let him do it, while she is a big girl and can defend herself. At one point Nick, overflowing with testosterone, even asks Mary scornfully if she still wanted to go to bed with Sid. Mary's best friend sweeps away all confusion in the survivor's mind, reminding her that she did all she could, and that Sid couldn't have cared less about that.

Nick also has difficulties in understanding why Mary was so hesitant in revealing the incident to him, why she played it down and did not even press charges. Feminists need no explanation here, but this film is for those who are still coming to grips with the effects of a rape. Their questions will remain unanswered.

At first, naturally, the victim is at first not believed. In keeping with the tradition of innocent until proven guilty, it is euphemistically claimed that Mary is either lying, the situation must not be interpreted quite so badly, or the culprit's intentions were not meant in that way. After all, says a friend of Nick and Sid's, they have been good friends for so long, they shouldn't allow anything to come between them.

Mary's character is pushed further into the background when Nick decides to exact revenge on Sid and does all within his power, without consulting the complainant herself. So it would seem that he is the one who has to come to terms with the incident more than anyone, and only when he has satisfied his vengeful thoughts will everything be OK again with his (ex-) girlfriend. Perhaps Nick does not even think about it. In any case, he makes no attempt to find out how Mary is feeling at the time. The film makes few attempts itself.

Eventually, Mary has enough. After a threatening confrontation between the two guys in her presence, during which they throw each other out of the house, she starts packing. When Nick returns, bleeding but somehow satisfied, she doesn't want to know. All she is interested in getting from Nick are the keys to her own car, in which she is to leave him.

So, by the end of the film, the target audience knows that testosterone-driven behaviour does not solve matters. But an alternative is not offered.

ki, Berlin

Queer Watchlion

Deutsche Version

Desolated Slaves to Black Souls
In three films young men have demands put on their friendships by rapists.

My Best Friend, the Rapist, Part I: Blackrock
My Best Friend, the Rapist, Part III: Slaves to the Underground

Seen during the:
Europian Film Market 1997