Potato Dreams of America – Cinema Diary

After a short film and a VR documentary, director Wes Hurley produces with Potato Dreams of America now also a feature film about his arrival in 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 realityfacility potato dreams (2017) was briefly presented at the IDFA. The fact that Hurley – once known as Vasili Naumenko – grew up in Vladivostok during the breakup of the USSR and then moved into the home of an American religious fanatic will therefore be new to most people.

Potato Dreams of America is interestingly divided into two parts. First, the impoverished childhood of Vasili (alias Patate) in the gray and suffocating communist empire that is at the end of its rope. The only positive point is the American films in which he dreams at night. star wars, full recall, A pretty woman. “In American movies, the good guys always win, in Russian movies, 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.

The Russian part takes place in a scenic setting that Hurley says references American sitcoms, but has just as much to do with the work of directors such as Derek Jarman and Pedro Almodóvar. He’s no coincidence queer cinema greats, as Vasili is, as his grandmother Tamara (Lea DeLaria) euphemistically describes him, “sensitive.” The light really comes on by itself when he has his first sexual experience thanks to the oiled body of Jean-Claude Van Damme.

In America, the film changes style and actors: the bright colors and the nimble camera correspond to the wonder of the mother and son (now played by Marya Sea Kaminska and Tyler Bocock) who move liberated and joyful in their Seattle’s new hometown. But the joy quickly fades when stepfather John (Dan Lauria) turns out to be a religious tyrant. Will he fire Vasili later because of his sexual orientation? In the end, it’s Gregg Araki’s cinematic classic The living end (1992) which causes an unexpected advance in the situation. This creates a strange twist in the story, which you as the audience must want to follow – but which actually happened in reality.