DVD REVIEW: SASHA

Sasha (Sasa Kekez) in Sasha.

Croatia coming out

By John Esther

Released today on DVD, Sasha tells a very familiar story about a gay teenager, Sasha (Sasa Kekez), who must hide his feelings for members of the same sex from his family while overexposing his feelings toward a mentor with heart of cold, Gebhard (Tim Bergmann).

The son of Croatian parents living in German, at the insistence of his mother (Zeljka Preksavec) Sasha has been taking piano lessons from Gebhard. Dad (Pedja Bjelac) is not too pleased with his son endeavoring in anything has effeminate and effete as artistic endeavors, but lets it slide because Sasha has a “girlfriend,” Jiao (Yvonne Yung-Hee), who is also a musician training for the same upcoming all-important audition.

Already unnerved by living in the closet, Sasha starts to unravel when Gebhard tells him he is leaving for Austria. Sasha, in his adolescence naïvete believed he and Gebhard would always be together, even if Gebhard never showed any type of emotional reciprocation to Sasha.

When Sasha relates his brother heart to Jiao, she has her own emotional panic as she has strong feelings for Sasha. Obviously she, like Dad and dimwit Uncle Boki (Jasin Mjumjunov) has no gaydar. But Sasha's mother and younger brother (Ljubisa Lupo Grujcic) do -- although they do not dare say the words out loud.
Written and directed by Dennis Todorovic, Sasha does not breaking any narrative frontiers. There are plenty of coming out stories these days and the ending here is quite conventional and some of the dialogue rings hollow. However, the fine acting, pace and score make it worthwhile viewing, not enough to buy the DVD (which does not seem to offer any bonus features), but catching it via cable or Netflix should work.