Ander's life sucks. He is a middle-aged man, the head of a household that includes his mother and soon-to-be-wed sister. Never married, he goes about his day on the strictest of schedules, his mother the true head of household. It's important to accept that the culture in Spain's Basque country holds that kids live with parents until they marry, no matter how old. Ander's sister Arantxa is on her way out despite being 14 years younger than him. What's holding up Ander? He has never put a point on it, but he comes uncomfortably close to an answer once Jose comes to the farm. What follows is the "romantic story" of Ander and Jose, except it isn't. Both cultures (Basque, Peru) don't accept homosexuality, so that word is never mentioned in the film. The closest you get is Ander's friend calling them "f*gs" at the conclusion. There's not even a kiss, a true sign of intimate entanglement. You do get a scene of lust-driven action, far different from love, which culminates with revulsion-induced vomit. The two, lust/love, get conflated in this world, where it isn't the best thing to define things openly. And how to reveal any of this to the matriarch of the conservative family?! He doesn't have to, and only when all familial connections are severed is he willing to live unconventionally. The hesitation I have in calling any of this a romance is that power plays an unstated, but potent, role in this movie. Ander is the "boss" of this farm, and Jose is a foreigner with no means to survive without Ander's support. They are both lonely men and they recognize that in each other, and Ander does decide to let Jose stay with him in the end, but to call it love? I don't know, maybe in time. Only through the death of those with even more power is Ander able to decide who he is, which isn't that powerful of a message, but it is a real one for many people around the world.
Review of Ander
