Ekaj is a drama about a teen’s runaway journey to one of the most difficult cities to survive in, New York City.
Ekaj (Jake Mestre) is a young man on the streets, a choice he made after life at home became intolerable, his father (Vinny Cruz) angry and frustrated his son isn’t straight and pursuing a ‘normal’ life. Ekaj is a slim, attractive boy but naive and highly vulnerable. He has a relationship with boyfriend Johnny (Scooter LaForge), who exploits just that, Ekaj only able to sustain himself through prostitution, believing he can keep some control, though that is never the case. He soon meets Mecca (Badd Idea), another street hustler he finds connection with, the more experienced man suffering from AIDS and a crippling drug addiction. As the abuses continue and life keeps him cornered, Ekaj searches for a proper place in a world that seems designed to push him out.
Filmed in guerrilla style with a cast of non-actors, writer and director Cati Gonzalez‘s street level descent into personal decline is a decidedly small affair, shot in tight close ups with jump cuts and ragtag editing, giving the experience a brash, handphone video journal feel. In fact, that’s mostly what it is, the audio, lighting, and overall presentation appearing very much like it was made by amateurs, which you eventually realize is sort of the point, Gonzalez treating it like a documentary made from video of people who were there; a found footage film of one man’s desperate fall into the abyss. Movies mostly make fantasy of real life. Ekaj is just real life.
What works best about this is Mestre, who to date has made Ekaj his only acting credit, convincing as a gay man clinging on to whatever gets him through the day, including a volatile relationship with an older man. Ekaj likes to embrace his delicate feminine features, making him an easy target, and his confusion over the men in his life leaves him tormented. Badd Idea is equally affecting, his body and face peppered in tattoos, playing a man slowly dying, he and Mestre together having the best moments in the movie. While the production might be designed to look less than professional, the acting isn’t, mostly because it feels unrehearsed and lived in.
Ekaj isn’t going to win over audiences weaned on big studio titles with high production values, top tier actors, and sweeping, emotional scores, Gonzalez’s ultra-low budget effort a far cry from that kind of moviemaking. Experimental and purposeful, this is a simple yet hardening slice of life that feels ripped from the phone of a person tracking their life in bits of handheld video clips, not unlike what probably must of us do anyway. That doesn’t make Ekaj less impactful, the film not really trying to make grand statements about its message, just compelling for how it must represents so many whose lives go entirely unseen.
Ekaj is currently streaming on Amazon Prime