WATCH: A gay teen is tempted by monsters & men in this dark Argentine fantasy
Carnal Sins (titled Almaluma in his native Argentina).Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.Our young protagonist is Nino (Nicolás Díaz) a bullied teen who moves with his family to a small, conservative town after being the victim of a number of homophobic attacks.
Not long after settling in, he begins hearing whispers of a local boy who had gone missing in the woods—the work of the almamula, others tell Nino.Thrust into the new community and the Catholic church at its center, Nino finds himself crushed by the weight of traditions and strict moralizing, all while beginning to see visions of this mythical creature on the edge of town.But, the more he sees her, and the more he begins to notice the repressed desire of his neighbors, the more Nino starts to think he may be better off just giving in and letting the almamula whisk him away.Alternately chilling and dreamlike, Carnal Sins builds on these well-known folk tales to tell a story close to home for Torales about growing up queer in a conservative community, and the ways the church would rely on scare tactics in an attempt to “cure” homosexuality.Get those watch lists ready; it’s going to be a very gay April.Speaking with Varietyat the Berlin International Film Festival last year, Torales opened up about the themes he set out to explore:“Like with many things invented by the Catholic church, the almamula was created to erase everything they considered immoral or a menace,” the director shared. “In the end, Almamula doesn’t tell the story of the monster that lives in the forest, but the monster that we, as human beings, created around sexuality, and how all that is different sometimes scares us.”Díaz has been praised for his harrowing, subtle performance which anchors the film, as has María Soldi playing his young mother Elsa, coping with an existential crisis of her own.
