Oct 29: Simplifying ‘Eastern Boys’ only complicates its message

eastern boys madison museum of contemporary art spotlight

American audiences probably aren’t familiar with writer/director Robin Campillo, and in all likelihood won’t be before A&E’s 10-episode order of The Returned inevitably debuts. The Westernized adaptation imports Campillo’s 2004 film and subsequent French TV series (on which he shares writing credit), where a small group of people presumed long dead return to their loved ones under mysterious circumstances. (Sound familiar?)

The Returned is 10 years old now but Campillo’s newest, Eastern Boys, which plays Wednesday Oct. 29 through the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Spotlight Cinema program, is just as invested in genre trappings. Over at Tone Madison, Scott Gordon argues that thinking of Eastern Boys in a strictly genre dynamic is reductive and in many respects, he’s right. Campillo’s central focus is in his microcosmic reenactment of modern European immigration, and what begins as a solicitation of sex between reserved Frenchman Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) and the much younger Ukrainian migrant Marek (Kirill Emelyanov) gives way to social and sexual dynamics that deserve more than one-word labels.

But consider two of the foci Campillo upends: home invasion and immigration allegory. The actual “invasion” in Eastern Boys takes place in its first 30 minutes, and Campillo directs the sequence as rhythmic seduction, not violation. What’s more, Daniel invites Marek to his home for a sexual rendezvous, so we don’t feel all that bad when the stakes are reversed and the apartment is ransacked by Daniel’s gang of Eastern European transplants (a gang led by Daniil Vorobyov’s sly, chameleonic “Boss.”) Combining the genres reveals a personal story between Daniel and Marek, as much a violation of trust as it is a strange cocktail of sexual and paternal impulses.

Splicing home invasion and allegory together also shows a bevy of misplaced feelings and unqualified offense. In essence, Daniel’s invited a sole visitor into his home under highly illegal circumstances, and therein lies the intersection of Campillo’s contemporary social sandbox. Without spoiling where Eastern Boys eventually goes, the idea of a personal space being violated by visitors who are at once scorned and secretly desired frames questions about immigration in a troubling light. Who’s at fault? Who has the right to be angry? The climax is undeniably melodramatic, but the resulting explosion is made all the more damning because of it.

  • Eastern Boys plays Wednesday Oct 29 at 7:00p in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Lecture Hall. Admission is FREE to MMoCA members and $7 for general audiences. Doors at 6:30p