As the protagonists in the
film, Iván
& Hadoum (2026), neither Iván nor Hadoum, who fall in love, are
heterosexuals even though by all appearances, save the long surgical scares
under Iván’s former breasts, the couple is a man and a woman, and indeed Iván
psychologically identifies himself as a man and Hadoum is a woman both biologically
and in how she sees herself. To claim that Hadoum is heterosexual simply because
Iván views himself as being a man, even though Hadoum is sexually attracted to
Iván’s vagina, would be utter ideological nonsense. Besides being gay or
bisexual, and thus easy targets for discrimination by agriculturalists in
southern Spain, the two people are of different national origins, for Iván was
born in Spain whereas Hadoum’s family hails from Morocco. Additionally, Iván is
Caucasian whereas Hadoum is an Arab, and Iván is Christian whereas Hadoum is
Islamic. Even in terms of labor-management relations, the couple is ripe for
division by other people, for Iván is on a management tract—the warehouse being
still owned by his uncle Manuel—whereas Hadoum is a greenhouse/warehouse worker,
and a disgruntled one at that. It would seem that Ian de la Rosa has written
and directed a film in which many ethical tropes are in play; which one is subject
to the most unethical harm goes unanswered. Even so, by including unethical
conduct on all of them, the film takes a step in the direction wherein
audiences can think philosophically in weighing the ethical harms
relative to each other.
The full essay is at "Iván & Hadoum."
