[QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

As Philomena Cunk (of television mockumentary Cunk on Britain) would put t, we don’t know much about how love and romance worked in olden times because back then people didn’t write blogs about their romantic misadventures. A huge chunk into the 21st century, we know plenty about many folks’ love and sex lives, whether we want it or not. Anyone with access to the internet and the urge to pour their hearts out (as well as other parts of their anatomy) to the public does it, and there will always be some audience interested in other people’s lives out there in cyberspace.

In his groundbreaking book Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman says: “Whether we are experiencing the world through the lens of speech or the printed word or the camera, our media-metaphors classify the world for us, sequence it, frame it, enlarge it, reduce it, colour it, argue a case for what the world is like”. He is unaware of the impact that social media would have on the average Earth citizen one day for the logical reason that he wrote it long before the internet was the “thing”. And our world became loud with a chorus of voices who sing their attuned solos to the sound of their own score.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is never short of surprises. What some of the A-listers eliminate in the selection process gets its visibility in the Estonian capital during one of the longest international film festivals (measured by days of screenings and events). One of the oddballs that the audience has a chance to see this year is the Argentinian hyperdocumentary I Can’t Have Sex by the first-time director Bel Gatti.

The film’s title is very descriptive, despite a few confusing plot devices. Gatti has not had sex in four years. She reveals the psychological reasons in the film’s first two minutes. She summarises her diagnosis and the advice provided by her psychologist, before presenting herself to the audience as a babysitter, mover, actress and occasional playwright. She informs us: “I’m gonna make this movie so I can have sex”. The strange cinematic journey to fulfil that desire is filled with music, dance, self-reflective or slightly ironic monologues, as well as conversations with sex toys. The most interesting, perhaps heartwarming, interaction is between the filmmaker and her mother. The same cannot be said about the exchanges with her friends.

Shot in long takes with a shaky handheld camera, I Can’t Have Sex is a helmer’s self-therapy session of sorts, which Gatti compares to an endless Instagram story. In its execution, the film can absolutely be compared to a very long Instagram reel, not just in terms of recognisable lensing (selfie) angles but also by the use of simple special effects available on smartphones. The pacing and the editing also follow the rules of social networks’ dynamics completely adjusted to the personal liking of the creator. The outdoor material is shot with a restless rhythm, and the picture is slightly blurred. The indoor takes reach their stability, while also offering the possibility to get to know the filmmaker more intimately. She jokingly puts her sex toys to use, and performs small theatrical solo acts. This includes children’s doctor plays, with plush animals. Next, she talks to her mother about her special role in the film. Greek tragedies are helpful in dealing with personal fears. So is a potential threesome with friends.

On her return journey to sexual normality, Bel Gatti doesn’t hit brakes. She is vocal about her problem in a way that many people couldn’t cope. She is very honest. articulate and raw.

I Can’t Have Sex does not set to please everyone. This is not a question of form, style and audiovisual expression. A sense of forlornness lingers from the beginning to the end. Gatti has a very personal and specific topic agenda, and a taste for confrontation. However, the whole affair is clumsily handled. This could be due to something she admits very early into the film’s long, chaotic two hours: “sometimes the stuff comes out on the camera, and some other stuff doesn’t come out unless I’m on the camera.”

Generally, the biggest problem with I Can’t Have Sex is the excess of content. It’s often impossible to work out what’s happening on the screen.

I Can’t Have Sex shows in the Rebels with a Cause section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.