When Night is Falling 1995; UR

When Night is Falling is a movie about a love affair between two women. This film is about a women’s first experience of sexual pleasure. Her pleasure is first with her fiancé but then even more intense with another women. The sex scenes are explicit and highly erotic. Many “coming of age” films focus on young people in their teens or early 20’s. This film presents older people who have abstained from sexual pleasure because of their religion. Beyond “coming of age” this film is about passion. It presents the contradictory tension that is often at the core of intense passion. These heightened sexual feelings are unexpected, unwanted, resisted and viewed as partly amoral. Simultaneously, they are intoxicating, irresistible and uncontrollable.  The feelings are dangerous and they leave a person vulnerable. The feelings of sexual passion also drive actions that at times blur the difference between consent and non-consent. All of these dynamics are illustrated in this film and therefore deserves a high recommendation. The film is available on Netflix. 1/21/16