Queer love finds its time

The good-looking queers of today’s narratives are adored globally — among them Shane Hollander and Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov, the star players of rival ice hockey teams who become secret lovers in the now internationally followed HBO Boys’ Love (BL) series Heated Rivalry. Hudson Williams, 24, and Connor Storrie, 25, are the striking Canadian actors behind these hockey heroes. Both have been confirmed as presenters at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, to be held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on 11 January (U.S. time). It will mark the first time the “loveteam” appears together at a public event in the United States.

There was a time when becoming queer lovers — onscreen or otherwise — was almost unthinkable. As far back as the 1960s, ranch workers Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist of Brokeback Mountain began their secret love affair in the summer of 1963, a period that feels uncomfortably recent.

The two lead characters in Cannes Best Director Brillante Mendoza’s fragment-titled film Until She Remembers are also queer lovers in their youth — upper-class colegialas in the city. Bianca Alexa L. Kierulf portrays the young Charo Santos (Concha), while Angel Jed Zaragoza Latorre plays the young Boots Anson Roa (Catherine).

When their families discover their secret, passionate romance — one that involves physical intimacy — they put an end to it. The young women are forbidden from seeing each other. Somehow, however, they manage to communicate in secret, reciting Pablo Neruda poems to one another. Eventually, their families succeed in pulling them apart. Catherine becomes an English teacher in private schools, while Concha marries and has a daughter, who in turn has a daughter of her own — one who later becomes problematic in school.

That troubled teenager is Angel (Barbie Forteza), Concha’s granddaughter, who chooses to stay with her grandmother after discovering that neither of her parents can spare the time to meet with her school principal to explain her poor academic performance. Angel’s mother is Gloria (Angel Aquino), whom her own mother describes as apathetic toward her child.

It is while living with Concha that Angel uncovers her grandmother’s past as a lesbian, stumbling upon scrapbooks and mementos hidden away. With the help of her boyfriend (played by Vince Rillon), Angel sets out to find Catherine. They track her down at the last school where she taught. Catherine now has Alzheimer’s, but the young couple is allowed to bring her home to Concha, where they patiently and lovingly wait for her memories to return. Sometimes, they do — though not always.

In real life, Roa and Santos are close friends who have long hoped to be cast together — not in a frivolous film, but as lesbian lovers. They once met Mendoza at industry functions and casually mentioned their dream of sharing a meaningful project. They never explicitly said the “L” word.

Unknown to them, Mendoza had long been nurturing a story about two lesbians yearning to be reunited in old age. When he finally met them to discuss the characters in a script he had written in Portugal — where he was giving master classes in directing — Santos and Roa reportedly exclaimed, “Manifestation!”

This is not Mendoza’s first time to explore lesbian themes. He first did so in Kaledo (2006), where the daughter (Cherrie Pie Picache) of a domineering father (Johnny Delgado) shocks him by coming home dressed as a man and introducing her lover (Aleck Bovick). Yet Kaledo was ultimately a portrait of family life in Pampanga, where Mendoza himself was born and raised.

Until She Remembers signals what feels like a new chapter in Mendoza’s career. Written by the director himself, the film centers on affluent characters and unfolds within the enclaves of the wealthy. It does not attempt to save the world from social injustice, racism, disease, or war. If anything, Mendoza seems intent on saving people of nonconformist genders from the bigotry of their own families.

Until She Remembers is slated for theatrical release as a post-Valentine film starting February 25. It is produced by Solar Films in collaboration with Mendoza’s Center Stage Productions.