Peeter Rebane’s ‘Firebird’ Is Passionate, Queer Cold War Slow Burn

Desire percolates throughout Peeter Rebane’s lush, restrained film, Firebird. Unlike a lot of period queer stories where the characters are forced to hide their true feelings, there is a lot of anger running alongside that yearning. With a beautiful performance from star and co-writer, Tom Prior, Firebird is an essential look at men falling in love surrounded by suspicious machismo.

Prior’s Sergey is anxious for his time in the Russian military to come to an end. He blends in with the other privates that he is stationed with during the height of the Cold War, but he aspires to study art, theater and performance. Prior’s eyes search for beauty in a world dictated by rules and men who long for power. There is a severity to the higher-ranking officials, and Sergey’s presence feels gentler and more precariously placed. When handsome fighter pilot, Roman (played by Oleg Zagorodnii) arrives at the base, he immediately catches Sergey’s eye.

As Sergey and Roman feel the pull of one another, it raises suspicions from Major Zverev, a stern man who informs Roman that someone has made accusations against the pilot’s sexuality. At the height of the Cold War, Article 121 of the Soviet criminal code threatened the lives of many queer people throughout the Soviet Union. That part of the world (like so many) has a complicated history with gay people, and it feels like Sergey and Roman cannot fully enjoy each other’s love or bodies because the threat is so near.

Firebird allows that danger to painfully harmonize with the threat of war. Queer love is seen as much of a threat as a nuclear bomb, and that violence is still very much a part of the Russian way of life . Watch David France’s searing Welcome to Chechnya to see how the government is trying to exterminate queer people living in that country. Some places are trying to physically erase gay bodies while others want to ban any utterance of gay history or presence. We see you, Don’t Say Gay bill supporters.

There is a tender quietness to the glimpses we see into the lives of Sergey and Roman. Their attraction to one another escalates quickly in a scene where they discuss the beauty of photography, but that same passion gets a physical release when they can swim together or in a rapturous rendezvous in Roman’s quarters. Prior, with his striking blue eyes and boyish face is the type of leading man we don’t see in wartime stories. There is an inherent optimism and longing that exudes from him. Sergey knows the world isn’t ready for the love that he and Roman share, but Prior’s calculated performance is a true revelation. He knows that creation and art fuel his soul more than fighting and destruction.

Firebird is one of the recent queer wartime films that have come through in the last year or so (Moffie and the upcoming Benediction are others), but Rebane doesn’t allow the gay love story to suffer amid all the madness. Sergey and Roman are allowed to be angry for their circumstances, and that makes the passion soar all the more higher.

Firebird will be released in theaters on April 29.