Male intimacy in Marco Berger’s Plan B and Hawaii

Argentinian director Marco Berger has made representing love between men, rather than their sex and individual sexual identities, his cinema’s objective. Critics and scholars have noted his original refocusing of bonds between men, which is consonant with contemporary queer Latin/o American film and theory. To elucidate Berger’s relationality, this article outlines the formal and thematic elements in his short film El reloj (The Watch) (2008) and examines their expansion in his features Plan B (2009) and Hawaii (2013). Uniting Berger’s idea of ‘love’ with Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘friendship’, I argue that the features visualize the formation of a unique male intimacy in which men can explore each other’s physicality, share affectionate gestures, express sensitivity, play together, take care of each other and have sex. Their bonds lessen heteronormative aggression and dominance and transform sexuality, as they no longer derive pleasure solely from the sexual act but rather from the range of sensations, emotions and experiences of their multifaceted intimacy.