Latvian Radio critics discuss masculinity through film "Birthday" and series "Man to Man"
In a Latvian Radio programme, film critics reviewed two works exploring different facets of masculinity — a Spanish psychological drama starring Willem Dafoe and a series about brothers, featuring Richard Gere and Jamie Bell.
In the Latvian Radio programme "Kur kritiķiem nav vietas" (Where Critics Have No Place), film critics Dārta Ceriņa and Žulijens Nuhums Kulibali discussed how contemporary film and television portray the breadth and diversity of masculinity.
The discussion centred on two works. The first is Spanish director Miguel Ángel Jiménez's psychological drama "Birthday", in which actor Willem Dafoe plays a ruthless and domineering billionaire.
A rivalry between brothers spanning three decades
The second work discussed is the multi-episode series "Man to Man" (Pusvīrs), which portrays two brothers caught in a complex, mutually dependent relationship over roughly three decades. The brothers are played by actors Richard Gere and Jamie Bell.
The two critics compared how the film and the series each depict the spectrum of masculinity, touching on themes of power, control and family bonds through different narrative forms and scales.
