Mario

For his latest feature, "Mario," openly gay Swiss filmmaker Marcel Gisler takes on one of the last bastions of homophobia: Professional sports. Whilst some media would have us believe that the occasional, very public coming out of a� celebrity�sports figure represents an evolving industry, this rather touching tale of Gisler's reminds us of the reality.

Mario (Max Hubacher) is a star professional footballer in the junior league in a small Swiss town and he is desperately hoping to win a place in the senior team in Germany next year. So does his pushy father, a failed�footballer who is now egging his son on to�fulfill the ambitions that he himself simply was not good enough to realize. Mario's chances of succeeding look good until the arrival of Leon (Aaron Altaras), a new and talented German player who may just be promoted instead.

The team provide an apartment for the two young men to share. Although they are initially awkward around each other, they soon become good friends. One night Leon seeks to take that friendship to a different level when he leans in and kisses a startled Mario, who reacts by running away.

However, the next day when Leon apologizes for his actions, it is Mario who now makes the move on him, and they end up in bed.�What initially appears to be purely sexual soon turns into something much deeper, which makes it all the more�difficult to keep their�new relationship�a secret from their teammates and the club management. When rumors start to circulate, each of the boys is summoned, together with their agents, by the club bosses to respond to an anonymous�allegation.

Confronted with the lame "we wouldn't mind if you were gay if it wasn't�for the sponsors�and fans" excuse, both Leon and Mario deny everything.�Mario takes it one step further by enrolling Jenny, his childhood friend, to act as his "girlfriend," which doesn't fool his teammates, but it does convince the management,�who award him the promotion along with a new apartment in Hamburg. Leon, on other hand, refuses to play-act. After angrily confronting his teammates he storms out of the club - and out of the town, as well.

The story could have ended there (especially given that, at just under two hours, the film is at least 30 minutes too long), but Gisler shows us what happens next, as the young men strive to get on with their lives separately.�

Mario, desperate to keep his newfound fame as a star player in a major team, keeps up the pretense with Jenny, who has moved with him to Hamburg. Leon has been his first and only love, and he still needs to discover for himself if he really has made the right life choices after all.

Gisler is hardly a prolific filmmaker; there are long gaps between his output, but his movies are, like this one, always worth the wait. "Mario" is an entertaining drama with some spot-on performances from the talented young cast. However, the story itself seems a tad old-fashioned at times, which may be a cultural thing - Switzerland is generally regarded as a rather conservative country.

Homophobia in any walk of life is obnoxious and completely unacceptable, and as attractive as this drama is, it is hardly going to help change any minds.