A Thousand Clouds of Peace Fence the Sky, Love, Your Being Love Will Never End

After his lover Bruno leaves, 17-year-old Gerardo wander the streets, haunted by images and memories of their relationship. Encounters with others fail to help, only making Bruno's absence all the more palpable. No-one - friends, family, new loves - and nothing - casual encounters, songs from an old musical - can help him overcome his all-consuming pain...

This first feature from Mexican writer/director Julian Hernandez has many positive qualities. It is well written, with convincing characterisation and a wholly believable central performance from Juan Carlos Ortuno. And it is beautifully put together, with a dreamlike mood being created through a combination of purposefully hazy black-and-white cinematography, courtesy of Diego Arizmendi, elegant pans and dollies and elliptical editing, with some sequences starting from Gerardo's point of view and then, with the actor moving outwith our field of view, segueing to catch up with him in a new location.

But, for all the care and attention, Hernandez has lavished on his creation there is one inescapable problem: the film is not that interesting, nor involving. I don't think this is because it's a "gay film", since, with the exception of an incident where Gerardo is assaulted by a pick-up, who turns out to be a gay basher, the subject of the film - unrequited love - is pretty much a universal one that transcends culture and sexual orientation. Something just doesn't work the way it ought to.

A Thousand Clouds Of Peace Fence The Sky, Love, Your Being Love Will Never End is, then, likely destined to be remembered for its title more than anything else.