This is a world that many people don’t even know exists. A dozen men and a woman frolic around an indoor pool in the south of Paris on Wednesday evening. They are part of the Sequined Shrimp, an LGBT+ water polo team. Everyone is wearing swimming caps with plastic earpieces. “You have to block the opponent with your body, you need a power hold,” coach Sebastien Beisson instructs them. “Physical contact is not a problem,” one of the players replies, and his colleagues laugh.
After a while, a whistle blows. While one half of the team tries to score the ball into the opponent’s goal as often as possible, the other half sits on the bench. The French have already made a film about the real “Shrimp in Sequins” in 2019. Now the second part has been released in cinemas – so far only in France, but soon the film comedy will be shown at international festivals. It not only allows the viewer to discover the world of water polo and LGBT+, but also shows how far everyday Russian life is from European.
Moscow police on their way to a gay competition
“In the first film, a homophobe became the coach of a gay water polo team,” director Cedric Le Gallo, who plays defense this Wednesday, tells DW. – In “La Revanche des Crevettes Pailletées” (“The Revenge of the Shrimp in the Sequins” is the name of the second part of the comedy. – Order) a water polo team goes to Russia and faces homophobia in that country.”
Director Cédric Le Gallo (left) and coach Sebastien Beisson
On their way to the gay games in Tokyo, players have to spend the night in Moscow due to a booking error. The police arrest some of them and send them to a re-education camp, where they are to be expelled for their homosexual tendencies. “It is important to show that in some countries of the world it is very difficult to be gay. This is not Germany or France, but Russia. There it is forbidden for a man to kiss his boyfriend on the street, because it is considered homosexual propaganda,” explains Le Gallo.
Filming in Ukraine
Due to strict laws, the French film crew could not work in Russia. Instead, the picture was filmed in Ukraine from January to April 2021 – also because people there speak Russian, and the architecture is somewhat reminiscent of Russian. Le Gallo still cannot believe that tanks are rolling along the streets shown in the film and that people are dying in the war. “The whole situation only makes it clearer how different Ukraine and Russia are,” he says. “Ukrainians want to be part of Europe – they are very similar to us and very different from the Russians.”
Arrest in Moscow. Shot from the film “Revenge” Shrimp in Sequins
Coach Basson thinks so too. He was an extra in the film and participated in filming in Ukraine. “There was a positive dynamic in Ukraine, a movement towards greater personal freedom, not only in terms of LGBT+ rights,” he notes in an interview with DW. “But now all this is secondary. It’s terrible that there is a war going on. Actors with whom we recently worked are now busy defending their country, fleeing or saving their families.”
Metaphor of the Russian state and therapeutic message
One of them is Dmitry Solovyov. In the film, he plays the leader of a gang that has made beating up gays a hobby. In real life, a 33-year-old Ukrainian now serves in the militia in the Cherkasy region. “Up until the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, we Ukrainians had many Russian friends and colleagues with whom we got along very well. But this is no longer possible. Russia is now just an aggressor and enemy for us,” he notes to questions from DW in Telegram.
For his compatriot Sasha Ivanov, this film is like a metaphor for the Russian state. In it, Ivanov plays a Russian who is sent to a re-education camp because he no longer wants to be gay. “The camp symbolizes Russia as a symbol of evil,” says the 20-year-old who fled to France a few days before the start of the war. “The Russian state has long thrown people into prison for wanting to be themselves.” According to him, “Revenge of Sequined Shrimp sets aside an almost therapeutic message: love and accept yourself for who you are.
And although the war in his homeland deeply shocked Ivanov, he still sees a ray of light on the horizon: “Russia will never be able to subjugate Ukraine,” he believes. “After every war, every crisis, there comes a renaissance. there were many cultural events, films and concerts. The same will happen after this war.” His colleague Solovyov also wants to keep hope. “This is such a wonderful film about life and free love. I hope we can all work together on a third part soon,” he writes.
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