YNOT at the Movies

Perhaps everybody have heard "There are something can't buy, for everything else, ..." However, try tell that to a gay Irish poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh. With money in his pocket, and probably a MasterCard as well, Searcaigh travels to Nepal every year, and he can get boys as young as 16 years old to have sex with him. For him, there is nothing money can't buy.

Director Neasa Ní Chianáin was invited to join celebrated Cathal Ó Searcaigh traveling to Nepal to make a documentary about Searcaigh's spiritual journey and his generous support to the poor people living there.

However, after she observes that young boys are in and out Searcaigh's bedroom, after they were given gifts and "scholarships" for college, Chianáin begins to make a film that tells a complete different story from what it was originally planned.

Is Cathal Ó Searcaigh a generous person who gives financial support to those poor boys so they can attend school? Or is he a sex tourist and take advantage of his economical status upon those young boys?

The answer is quite obvious to everybody, except Searcaigh himself, who denies that he gives those boy gifts because he wants to have sex with them. He does not think he is buying these boys; he believes that he is helping them out and doing them a favor.

That makes him even worse than those Western sex tourists floating around in Asian countries. At least those sex predators are straightforward with their intention.

But Searcaigh wants to present himself as a savor, if not a saint, to those boys and to the poor people in Nepal, and he regards his relationships with these young boys to be his inspiration of his work.

"Fairytale of Kathmandu" is a very sad and disturbing documentary to watch, but it tells a story that must be told. This film will be screened at Frameline 32.