Proteus [2003] [DVD]

Proteus takes its title from the shape-shifting sea god of Greek mythology and its plot from the records of a 1735 sodomy trial, which involved two prisoners held on Robben Island off the coast of South Africa. They were a Dutch sailor (Neil Sandilands) and Claas Blank, a Hottentot tribesman (Rouxnet Brown). Both meet when they are sentenced to hard labor on the island: the native African for a conviction related to cattle theft, the sailor for sodomy.

After spending time endlessly chipping at rocks, they are soon conscripted to assist Niven (a very good Shaun Smyth), a Dutch botanist who is classifying the native flora. Niven is also gay and has fled Amsterdam, where homosexuals are currently being persecuted and publicly garroted. The seaman and the African embark on a hot sexual affair that eventually leads to a powerful bond neither are capable of articulating; they just don't know what it is. The botanist, meanwhile, after spying on the couple's most intimate moments, begins to harbor a fascination for the African prisoner.

The couple manages to spend many years together, despite threats and taunts from their fellow prisoners to turn them in. But pressure from Amsterdam to crack down on "unnatural practices" by maintaining the social order in the colonies and preserving the mercilessly strict maintenance of class, race and gender hierarchies, leads to the pair being set-up. Discovered in the act, the couple are tortured, chained, placed in prison, and then put on trial again for their "mutual perpetration."

Fusing gender politics, romantic love, and imperialist repression, Proteus tries hard to engage the viewer, and there's no doubt that the movie is packed with a solemn sincerity. But all too often the story comes across as convoluted and long-winded; there are elaborate flashback scenes in Amsterdam, subtitled dialogue in three languages, and many unwarranted anachronisms, such as a jeep, a radio, and a trio of sixties female court reporters, that overload the film. With so much muddle, the emotions lose meaning and the politics go fuzzy with them.

Proteus doesn't really work as a love story because the two main leads, while trying hard, don't have a lot of chemistry and their scenes together are clumsily enacted. The movie also doesn't really work as a political statement because it's trying to cover too much ground. Is it about the horrors of colonialism, or a testimonial on racism, subjugation and homophobia? It's probably about all of these issues but none of them are adequately explored in any detail. And the film fails as a period piece because the insertion of the contemporary props gives it an ill-conceived, conceited post-modern sensibility that just doesn't quite work. Proteus comes across as too overly precious and arty, when in reality, it needed to be much more hard-hitting and powerful than I actually is. Mike Leonard March 05.