Nina's Heavenly Delights
Right after Love My Life, here's a recommendation for another happy lesbian film: Nina's Heavenly Delights. The ”Nina” in question is a young Scottish woman of Indian descent who moved away from her family years ago after a botched engagement, but now returns for her beloved father's funeral. She finds out that her father had severe gambling depths and that the family will be forced to sell his restaurant This is something Nina very much wants to avoid,so she convinces her father's young business partner Lisa to help her save the restaurant (or at least up the price) - before he died, her father reached the finals in a cooking competition, and Nina wants to fulfil his wishes by winning the contest. Unfortunately, her ex-fiancé, a brilliant chef, is also in the competition. A good thing she has Lisa, and the two of them soon find themselves involved romantically as well as professionally, something Nina has trouble telling her family.
The "heavenly delights" in the title refer to food, of course, but the film itself is a delight too; perhaps not quite heavenly, but a sheer joy to watch. It managed to be both happymaking and bring tears to my eyes at the same time, which is no mean feat. From a queer perspective, I particularly liked that the romantic storyline was the B plot, because that doesn't happen very often. I also liked the many different kinds of relationships explored in the film, the various ways the message of being true to oneself was brought home, and the occasional moments of magic realism. Mostly, I just loved it because it was so utterly charming in every way; a fine example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
This is the first feature film by director Pratibha Parmar, who has mostly done shorts and documentaries. I discovered after the viewing, though, that co-writer Andrea Gibb has also written Dear Frankie, another beautiful film that could easily have been maudlin in lesser hands.
The film is available on DVD (Region 1, 2, or 4) as well as torrents.
Nina's Heavenly Delights trailer on YouTube
ETA: After reading a comment on this post, I went to look and realized that the critics hate it. Which is sad. I stand by my verdict, but, y'know, read the critics too for balance, or something.
The "heavenly delights" in the title refer to food, of course, but the film itself is a delight too; perhaps not quite heavenly, but a sheer joy to watch. It managed to be both happymaking and bring tears to my eyes at the same time, which is no mean feat. From a queer perspective, I particularly liked that the romantic storyline was the B plot, because that doesn't happen very often. I also liked the many different kinds of relationships explored in the film, the various ways the message of being true to oneself was brought home, and the occasional moments of magic realism. Mostly, I just loved it because it was so utterly charming in every way; a fine example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
This is the first feature film by director Pratibha Parmar, who has mostly done shorts and documentaries. I discovered after the viewing, though, that co-writer Andrea Gibb has also written Dear Frankie, another beautiful film that could easily have been maudlin in lesser hands.
The film is available on DVD (Region 1, 2, or 4) as well as torrents.
Nina's Heavenly Delights trailer on YouTube
ETA: After reading a comment on this post, I went to look and realized that the critics hate it. Which is sad. I stand by my verdict, but, y'know, read the critics too for balance, or something.