29 Jul 2008

The Book of Revelation

Director: Anna Kokkinos

Starring: Tom Long, Greta Scacchi, Colin Friels

Awards: Best Music Score, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards

Release: 2008-07-29

When rape occurs, the victims are commonly women. But what happens when the tables are turned and the women become the aggressors instead?

Based on Rupert Thomson's erotic novel, The Book of Revelation stars Tom Long as a sensitive and soulful (but straight) ballet dancer who is kidnapped by three women and forced to pleasure them.

When Tom is finally released, he returns to his home dazed and confused, unable to deal with his trauma. The police won't believe him and he is too ashamed to tell his loved ones. So Tom runs away from it all and becomes a bartender in a port city instead. There, he resorts to having casual sex with strange women, in the vain hope of meeting one of his abductor whose tattoos and red hair are his only clues...

The Book of Revelation wants to be a daring and intelligent film that tries to explore gender politics in a way that few films have. But despite its bold aims and intriguing storyline, director Anna Kokkinos' film is ultimately too arty and dreamlike to make a dramatic impact. Rape is a very real issue, one that afflicts thousands of people daily, yet this movie carries a lofty and rarefied tone that may not have been the wisest of creative choices.

Director Anna Kokkinos' has made two LGBT films — Head On, an adaptation of a gay novel which swept top awards at L.A. OutFest, Milan, San Franscisco, and other LGBT film festivals; and Only the Brave, a lesbian love story
which garnered top prizes in Melbourne and at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.