Kinds of Kindness

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983. In the last and turbulent days of the military dictatorship, Alicia, a high school history teacher, begins to ask uncomfortable questions about the dark origins of Gaby, her adopted daughter.

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

Tourists eating and taking photos. Tourists strolling and taking photos. Tourists bathing on the beach and taking more photos. Barcelona has become an overexploited photocall to the point of paroxysm, and this is what this film shows by turning the camera and pointing towards the visitors. A small gesture that, added to a powerful sound contrast and a caustic sense of humour, exposes without subterfuge a grotesque normality.

Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.

The first part, "My Brother's Lover," tells the story of a gay man's sister falling for his boyfriend. Graduate student Takeo lives with his sister, but he can't bring himself to tell her about his gay boyfriend, Riku. When Riku comes over to their house to have sex with Takeo, his sister falls in love with him. The second part, "His Child," tells the story of Akihiko, a man who falls for his straight friend and ends up looking after his friend's baby at his request. His lover, Yuki, can't stand seeing the baby. Is balancing love and child-rearing just as difficult for gay men?