Romeos (2011)

A drama centered on the relationship between a two young men, as one of them navigates the difficulties of life as a transgender man.

Director:

Sabine Bernardi

Writer:

Sabine Bernardi (screenplay)

Stars:

Rick Okon, Max Befort, Liv Lisa Fries

4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rick Okon	...	Lukas
Max Befort	...	Fabio (as Maximilian Befort)
Liv Lisa Fries	...	Ine
Felix Brocke	...	Sven
Silke Geertz	...	Pflegedienstleiterin Annette
Gilles Tschudi	...	Herr Boeken
Ben Gageik	...	Svens Freund
Sigrid Burkholder	...	Lukas' Mutter
Johannes Schwab	...	Lukas' Vater
Tessa Lukat	...	Leila
Katrin Heß	...	Pflegemädchen Jessy
Mira Benser	...	Pflegemädchen 1 (as Mira H. Benser)
Lilli Lorenz	...	Pflegemädchen 2
Julia Schäfle	...	Blondie
Juliane Knoppek	...	Jaqueline

Storyline

Twenty year old Lukas (Rick Okon) is a female to male (FTM) Trangender man, taking the steps through his gender reassignment treatment. His friendship with Ine (Liv Lisa Fries), who is lesbian, is making the changes and assimilation easier. Lukas sees his romantic world open up for him as Ine introduces him to gay life in Cologne. As he becomes more and more interested in a local gay boy (Max Befort), things are getting more and more complicated.

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Plot Keywords:

transgender | ftm | gender reassignment | friendship | lesbian | 

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Taglines:

How do you love someone, if you don't show who you are?

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English Italian

Release Date:

8 December 2011 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Romeus

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$773, 18 September 2011

Gross USA:

$1,081

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$26,324

Company Credits

Production Co:

Boogiefilm, Das Kleine Fernsehspiel (ZDF), Enigma Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Drag Queen Cassy Carrington was originally planned to lip sync to the song "hope there's someone" by Antony & the Johnsons. The production company could not afford to license the famous track so they came up with "Poor wayfaring stranger" by Andreas Scholl.

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Goofs

Between 1:12 and 1:13, when Lukas is cleaning his room, you see the red "z" with it's dot above (like an upside-down question mark) on the balcony screen. When Fabio sits down on the window sill, the "z" has disappeared (only the dot stays), and it appears again afterwards.

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Soundtracks

Valentine's Day
Performed by Klaus Nomi
Composed by George Elliott and Page Wood
(C) Dingbat Parade Music
Courtesy of Heliocentric CD

User Reviews

Excellent!

I've literally just returned from the screening of this movie and it's in my opinion one of the best titles out there dealing with the topic of transsexuality and even homosexuality.

What is important and what this movie does so well, is dealing with the topic so problematic for any transgendered person that was ever attracted to someone of the same gender; which is, how to explain to others that being attracted to a woman doesn't make you a man - but feeling like a man does. Rick Okon does an amazing job - up to googling him I couldn't find out whether he is male or female in real life (the perfectly done breasts confused me) and I'm ashamed that I was focusing on this so much because it just shows once more how binary-minded we are about sex and gender, even though this topic is personal to me. However - for not being transgendered himself, the actor really gets the pain, the frustration, everything that is behind the feeling of not fitting in such a basic category system.

I was also pleased with the development of other characters. In a love story, a view-point (and actually the whole life) of someone's best friend can get easily overlooked and I like how they dealt with it. The role of Fabio was also great and the scene with the trans-girl singing was just beautiful.

Basically, if this movie would go on for another two hours, I would keep staring.