Beyto

Gitta Gsell's 2020 Swiss film follows Beyto, the only son of a Turkish migrant family. He is a swimmer, an apprentice and has a wide circle of friends; when he falls in love with his coach Mike, his parents' world comes apart. The family's solution is to take their son back to their village and arrange a wedding. From there the film builds a deadlock among three people: Beyto, Mike and Seher, the woman Beyto is married to. Everyone loses, and the film does not leave Seher at the margin. It is adapted from a novel by Yusuf Yesiloz. The telling is unshowy, and the movement between Switzerland and Turkey does not set up an exaggerated contrast. That restraint is both the film's strength and its limit; it rests on irresolution rather than dramatic peaks. Who it's for: those who like films that work migrant families and queer narrative together. Who it's not for: viewers expecting the family's stance to be explained or resolved; the film leaves the deadlock as a deadlock.