Potato Dreams of America – Cinema Diary

Director Wes Hurley directs, after a short film and a VR documentary, with Potato Dreams of America now also a feature about him coming to America as the gay son of a Russian mail-order bride.

Is it too much? No, this emigration is still an interesting story and chances are Dutch audiences haven’t seen the first two. the court Small potato (2017) made a strong impression at the SXSW film festival in Austin but was not shown in the Netherlands and the virtual reality-facility potato dreams (2017) was briefly presented at the IDFA. So Hurley – who once lived as Vasili Naumenko – grew up in Vladivostok during the breakup of the USSR, then moved into the house of an American religious fanatic, this will be new to most people.

Potato Dreams of America is interestingly divided into two parts. The first is the impoverished youth of Vasili (aka Patate) in the gray and stuffy communist empire that is at the end of its tether. The only positive point is the American films in which he dreams at night. star wars, Total recall, a pretty woman. “In American movies, the good guys always win, in Russian the bad guys,” complains Vasili (Hersh Powers) at school. His single mother Lena (Sera Barbieri) also notices this and decides to register as a mail-order bride for American men. Hoping for a better life.

This Russian part takes place in a scenic setting which, according to Hurley, refers to American sitcoms, but has as much to do with the work of directors as Derek Jarman and Pedro Almodóvar. Not coincidentally, queer cinema greats, because Vasili is, as his rude grandmother Tamara (Lea DeLaria) euphemistically describes it, “sensitive.” For him, the light really comes on when he has his first sexual experience thanks to the oiled body of Jean-Claude Van Damme.

In America, the film changes style and cast: the bright colors and nimble camera respond to the wonder of mother and son (now played by Marya Sea Kaminska and Tyler Bocock) moving freely and happily through their Seattle’s new hometown. But the joy quickly fades when stepfather John (Dan Lauria) turns out to be a religious tyrant. Will he soon dismiss Vasili because of his orientation? After all, it’s Gregg Araki’s classic movie The living end (1992) which causes an unexpected advance in the situation. It creates a strange twist in the story, which you as the audience must want to follow – but which actually happened.