Directors on being gay in old age: “How do you show a 76-year-old man having sex?”

In Maspalomas on Gran Canaria, Vicente (José Ramón Soroiz) has found a free life in his mid-seventies. Between dunes, clubs and fleeting encounters, he lives an openly gay life, far away from his Basque home and the family he left decades ago. After a stroke he has to go back and is put in a nursing home.

“Maspalomas” tells of queer aging, desire and the gap between formal equality and lived freedom. The film was directed by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi, members of the Basque Moriarti collective, which became internationally known with films such as “The Endless Trench” and the “Cristóbal Balenciaga” series.

taz: Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, in your film “Maspalomas” the protagonist Vicente ends up in a nursing home. Nobody there is openly homophobic to him. Why is the apparent normality of this place still enough to push him back into the closet?

Filmmakers Aitor Arregi (born 1977) and Jose Mari Goenaga (born 1976) often work together as part of the production company Moriarti Produkzioak. This resulted in films such as “Handia” (2017) and “The Endless Ditch” (2019). Moriarti's projects are generally created in a team, including in the direction.

Jose Mari Goenaga: There were moments in my script where the homophobia in the home was more clearly expressed. But I wanted to talk about how we queers have to deal with situations that aren't so clear-cut throughout our lives. At some point the enemy is within you. Society then likes to say it's your problem. It was important to us not to expose the homophobia too clearly and still make it understandable why Vicente behaves this way.

Aitor Arregi: The nursing home is also a metaphor for society and the forces that do not always make themselves known. We feel free, but in certain situations we are not. Something can be legally permitted, and yet family, religion or social environment prevent you from using this freedom.

taz: The psychologist at the home basically tells Vicente that he can come out, but the others might have a problem with it. She acts tolerant and transfers all the risk to him.

Goenaga: I think she is convinced at this moment that she is doing the right thing. Of course he can openly show himself as a gay man, she tells him, but maybe he shouldn't because he could get hurt. Not because of her, but because of others. That's not freedom. The film shows a home where younger professionals try to create a more modern facility and pay more attention to what each person wants. In the end, however, you realize that these changes may only be taking place on the surface.

taz: Spain was one of the first countries to introduce marriage for everyone in 2005. At the same time, you described “Maspalomas” as a film about the danger of losing the freedoms you have already fought for. Is Vicente's personal withdrawal also a picture of social regression?

Goenaga: The laws are there. But if you go deeper, you find many small problems. My mother says that I should be careful in Madrid because something could happen to me. If a young man is killed and there is evidence of a homophobic attack, it is immediately doubted that homophobia could have been the motive. There is an official discourse that supposedly protects us. If you look at the details, the reality looks different.

taz: Vicente is not just a victim of these circumstances. He left his family decades ago and broke off contact with his daughter Nerea. How important was her anger to you?

Arregi: It is fundamental to the film. She carries an old injury within her, but does not remain in the role of victim. After 25 years of no contact, she won't be as friendly with her father as she used to be. She takes responsibility and takes care of him - but only up to a certain point. She won't force closeness.

Goenaga: Vicente behaves almost aggressively towards her because he is afraid of facing his past. He turns this fear into aggression. He believed he had long since completed the path to self-acceptance. In fact, he has to walk it again.

Goenaga: An important reference for me was David Leavitt's novel “The Lost Language of Cranes”. Afterwards I read reports from men who had lived with a woman for a long time and had children and only came out when they were around 50. There is also a personal connection. I didn't live with a wife or have a child, but I also came out late, at 33. As I was writing, I asked myself how a man who came out of the closet so late could end up back in it at the end of his life.

taz: In “Maspalomas” you show older gay men having sex, sensually and naturally. What attracted you to it?

Arregi: For me that was one of the most important reasons for making the film. How do you show a 76 year old man having sex? And how do you deal with the idea that older people don't have sex and shouldn't desire younger people?

Goenaga: Our clear reference was Alain Guiraudie's cruising thriller “The Stranger by the Lake” from 2013. We also wanted this naturalism. We didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but rather show sex naturally, explicitly and as a pleasurable act.

taz: Aitor, you described your visit to the gay world of Maspalomas as a kind of master's degree. As a straight director, how did you avoid exoticizing this world?

Arregi: Maspalomas is a special world with its huge community of gay tourists. It's pretty crazy, but not Las Vegas, it has its own character. This could easily be filmed as a spectacle. Our approach, on the other hand, was almost ethnographic or anthropological. We wanted to show how people live there while staying close to Vicente.

Goenaga: Aitor is curious, but doesn't judge too quickly. Even with very open-minded heterosexual people you can sometimes feel tension. Not with Aitor. He had things shown and explained to him and was very open.

taz: Many queer people rely on circles of friends or chosen families as they get older. How should care facilities react to the reality of their lives? Has your film already changed anything?

Goenaga: After the film's release, the Basque government decided on an initiative to prepare nursing home workers for such situations. Many people outside of the LGBTQI+ community had no idea that older queer people could end up back in the closet. As soon as this becomes apparent as a problem, politicians can develop new protocols and train employees.