The line between intention and action is put to the test in this poignant, queer, coming-of-age short film, ‘Mother Knows Best’ featured in the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.
At the back of a car, two boys are seated comfortably. One is smiling on his phone as his hands roam around the head of the other boy– attentively listening to a female voice– beside him. The touchy boy puts up his phone and signals the other for a selfie. Once they are near the boy’s house, the two share a sweet kiss goodbye, with him struggling to let the other go.
Once the boy closes the door, the voice, who is revealed to be the mother jokingly tells her son that his boyfriend was stiff as he was only able to say 2 words in the first hour of meeting each other. Her son is not amused by this. He rolls his eyes as he gets out of the car to transfer to the passenger seat of the car. As he does this, the mother takes back her earlier comment and tells her son that the boyfriend is charming.
Both sit comfortably in silence as they drive home. Orange hues fill the cab as the son smiles in contentment with the knowledge that, at last, his mother knows his true identity and has met his boyfriend. However, the mother disrupts the serenity of the drive by blurting out that the son shouldn’t disclose this to his father yet. The son is visibly taken aback by this. He feigns ignorance by asking her what she means but the mother is determined and confirms that he shouldn’t tell his dad that he is gay. He asks her why he shouldn’t be honest and the mother is quick to say that his dad might throw him out if he finds out. The son only laughs in disbelief. He further probes and asks his mom why she thinks his dad would do this to which she replies vaguely that he knows how he is. The son however is not satisfied with the answer and is defensive in saying to his mother that if she has a problem with him being gay, she should just say it to his face rather than project it to the dad. However, the mother replies that she is wholeheartedly happy for him.
The mother compromises and tells him that he can bring his boyfriend home to meet the dad but with the pretense of just friendship. Beside her, the son is fuming in anger as he does not want to lie. She further pleads with him to be careful especially outside. She makes him promise not to hold hands in public so as not to provoke people to be harmful to them. She justifies this by reminding him that there are people who are still intolerant in the world who can easily beat him up and for her, he should be reserved and silent.
It is painful to see how the mother intends to protect her son but in the end, is only hurting him by persuading him to hide his true self.
The son surprises his mother by telling her that his father already knows that he and his boyfriend have had multiple dinners together and that the dad has taken it well.
For a moment, the mother is unable to reply to him. She clarifies when specifically did they meet. The son however does not want to answer and starts to explicitly distract her mother with vague answers which does not satisfy her. But in the end, he is forced to admit that he came out to his father when he was 12 or 13 leaving his mother speechless once more.
She clarifies that the boy’s dad has known him since he was a young teenager and in disbelief adds that she is only being informed of this now. The boy does not know how to answer or how to handle how her mother is reacting.
