Event
Querelle Screening + Medusa of the Roses Book Release [In-Person Only]
Fri Aug 30: 7.00pm PDT
Sat Aug 31: 4.00pm PDT, 7.00pm PDT
Sun Sep 01: 4.00pm PDT, 7.00pm PDT
$14 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member
Series - Visiting Artists
About
The lurid romanticism of French author Jean Genet has inspired the work of countless queer writers and filmmakers for over eighty years. In the realm of literature, author and artist Navid Sinakis debut novel Medusa of the Roses is one such work, suffused with Genets sensibility. To celebrate its publication by Grove Atlantic, well be hosting Sinaki in person for special screenings of Rainer Werner Fassbinders final film, Querelle (1982), an adaptation of a Genet novel.
In Medusa of the Roses, queer love blossoms and brutalizes in modern-day Tehran, where homosexuality is criminalized but still electrifies the Persian underground. Tawdry and tantalizing, with a sun-stained theatricality, Querelle also centers on extremes of love forced to the fringes of society. In both Fassbinders film and Sinakis novel, queerness breeds the sensual and the sordid, mythology and mayhem.
More about the film:
(Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1982, 108 min, in English)
Director Rainer Werner Fassbinders final film is a deliriously stylized tale of hothouse lust and simmering violence. Set amid an expressionistic soundstage vision of a French sea port, this daring adaptation of a novel by Jean Genet recounts the tragedy of a handsome sailor (Brad Davis) as he is drawn into a vortex of sibling rivalry, murder, and explosive sexuality. Completed just before Fassbinders sudden death at age thirty-seven, Querelle finds the director pushing his embrace of artifice and taboo-shattering depiction of queer desire to new extremes.
Stills and synopsis courtesy of Janus Films.
More about the book:
Anjir and Zal are childhood best friends turned adults in love. The only problem is they live in Iran, where being openly gay is criminalized, and the governments apparent acceptance of trans people requires them to surgically transition and pass as cis straight people. When Zal is brutally attacked after being seen with another man in public, despite the betrayal, Anjir becomes even more determined to carry out their longstanding plan for the future: Anjir, whos always identified with the mythical gender-changing Tiresias, will become a woman, and theyll move to a new town for a fresh start as husband and wife.
Then Zal vanishes, leaving a cryptic note behind that sets Anjir on a quest to find the other man, hoping he will lead to Zal. Stalking and stealing his way through the streets, clubs, library stacks, hotel rooms, and museum halls of Tehranwhere he encounters his troubled mother, addict brother, and the dynamic Leyli, a new friend who is undergoing a transition of her ownAnjir soon realizes that someone is tailing him too. It quickly becomes clear that more violence may be the fastest route to freedom, as Anjirs morals and gender identity are pushed to new places in the pursuit of love, peace, and self-determination.
Steeped in ancient Persian and Greek myths, and brimming with poetic vulnerability, subversive bite, and noirish grit, Medusa of the Roses is a page-turning wallop of a story from a bright new literary talent.
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LocationNorthwest Film Forum (View)
1515 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122
United States
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Accessibility
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum's ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at maria@nwfilmforum.org
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