Le Clan (French) [3 Dancing Slaves]

This is a very interesting film and take s a little while to hold audience's attention. Initially it did not seem a movie with gay theme but then it was definitely a very homo-erotic movie. After sometime, when the viewer starts getting deep into the story, you find out there is much more to it and actually there is a gay theme as well.

Three brothers live with their recently widowed father in a small town near the Alps in France. Marc is a rebellious youth, into drugs and petty crime and at constant contention with his overbearing father. We follow his life where he hangs out with his friends, gets into all kinds of trouble because of drugs and is finally forced to kill his own dog for not paying the dues. The eldest brother Christophe is recently released from prison and is trying to live straight by starting from the bottom in a pork factory and working his way to the top. Prison life has tamed him and he has now accepted the realities of life. Marc was counting on his brother to return from prison to take revenge from the goons who were after him but Christophe refuses. He very quickly moves up the ladder in the factory that he is working and has kind of settled in life. Olivier is the youngest and though tattooed and quasi-rebellious is the sensitive one whose gender issues are just beginning to focus. He doesn't find himself fitting in his bother's world but at the same time they are his family. Olivier finds love and passion with Hicham, Marc's friend, who is North African and repeatedly dances the capoeira, a slave dance, for his own expression and his need to connect with Olivier. They start a relationship but soon Olivier breaks up because he knows he needs to spend more time with his brothers as a family and his own personal feelings and needs will always be a lower priority for him.

Despite the differences in these young men there are repeated encounters that signify their bonding. Through each brother and 3 different segments we paste together a family disrupted and needy. There is a lot of nudity and bare bodied men which is very pleasing to the eye. Despite the differences in these young men there are repeated encounters that signify their bonding. One quiet scene shows the father awake, sitting and watching the troubled sons asleep, naked, entwined in each other's bodies: it should be clipped for a still shot as it is very beautiful. The acting by all cast members is very nice. Everyone's part has their own reasons for being the way they are. In the end, the slave dancer Hicham is free enough to take a principled, self respecting stand to end a demeaning relationship, yet the three brothers who look down on him are enslaved to their past.

A haunting and heart wrenching film with more than enough eye candy. (7/10)