Coming of Age
In Of An Age, writer-director Goran Stolevski uses a road trip, and a key moment in history, to tell a story of identity & awakening that will sear itself into your memory.
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2 years ago
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Of An Age (Australia, 99 min, Goran Stolevski). A Serbian ballroom dancer experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend's older brother.
Key social insight? Of An Age taps into that most intense of desires we can all remember - the teenage crush - and bolts it to a gay awakening story, delivering a “love is love” message that’s truly relatable. By setting the action in the past, Stolevski urges us to reflect on how much has changed for gay rights today - and what still remains to be achieved.
What causes does Of An Age explore? LGBTQIA+
You never forget your first. First crush, that is. Remember those heady high school days, where the mere waft of someone’s Lynx or Impulse in the air, or the sight of them across the handball courts, was enough to release a full squadron of butterflies into your digestive system? Macedonian Australian writer-director Goran Stolevski definitely does, but he’s traded the high school quadrangle for a brown Holden Kingswood, as he delivers a road-trip romance that earns top marks for its honesty, sensitivity and authenticity.
What is Of An Age about?
It’s summer, 1999, and Of An Age starts in a panicked rush: Ebony wakes up on a beach after, clearly, ‘a big night’. She sprints to a phone booth (remember, no iPhones) and shouts down the baking hot handset at her best friend and dance partner, Kol, that they’ll miss their dance comp final if he doesn’t come pick her up ASAP! (remember, no Uber). They madly use shop names and street signs to figure out where she is (remember, no Google Maps) and then frantically lock in the last piece of the puzzle, Ebony’s brother Adam, to pick up Kol, go collect Ebony from the beach, and somehow race to the dance recital to make their final. PHEW.
With Ebony an hour’s drive away, the film’s manic pace winds down as the boys’ road trip begins: the scene’s set for 18 year old Kol and 24 year old Adam to break the ice. Like plenty of younger guys, feigning machismo to cover awkwardness, it starts with gently hanging crap on each other: Kol’s sparkly deep-V dance outfit; Adam’s upcoming trip to Argentina to study a PhD and hook up with “hot South Americans”. They bond & laugh over Ebony’s questionable acting skills, and Kol’s fascinated by Adam’s eclectic music taste; the soundtrack to a Wong-Kar Wai film plays on the tape deck. Adam offers Kol some tapes, since he’s going away - they belonged to his ex anyway. “Won’t they mind?”, Kol asks. “No… He won’t.” Adam replies, casually confirming the delicate question that was hanging in the car’s stuffy air like a ton of bricks.
Kol’s wide-eyed reaction belies a smash of emotions: surprise, curiosity, excitement, perhaps even internal relief at meeting someone older who’s gay and comfortable with themselves. ‘Yes, it’s possible.’ There’s a clear spark between them, but with Adam set to head OS, there’s only one night (and one bad party) left to explore the connection between them - one that leaves them both changed forever.
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What causes does Of An Age explore?
With just two characters in an overheating Holden, writer-director Goran Stolevski intersects first love and queer love, but with two crucial layers: the pre-millenium timeframe of 1999 and the Slavic family background of Kol (full name: Nikola). Both of them factor in to Kol’s sexual awakening and his confusion and fear over his feelings and his future. His Mum works night shifts and isn’t present; his uncle is the kind that gets drunk at gatherings. When Kol wears his dance costume at home, his uncle grumbles that he’d prefer he played football. It’s implied that Kol would be thrown out of home if he ever came out to his family.
It’s a wake-up call to put yourself in Kol’s shoes in that time & place. Sure, there’s been some positive moves in LGBTQIA+ attitudes in Australia, even for those with Slavic family backgrounds (like Kol) that traditionally view homosexuality as taboo. But research from as recently as 2022 found that the stigma of being Macedonian and gay is pervasive, with some study participants describing that they were “living a double-life”, or feeling that being Slavic and gay was “incompatible”. That’s still a reality today. Now rewind the “progress” back more than two decades to 1999, to get a fuller appreciation for just how closeted teenage Kol must feel from his family & friends.
“Of An Age is a queer Australian romantic drama brimming with tenderness and enchantment.” ~ Wenlei Ma
Stolevski touches on this progress in LGBTQIA+ rights in the film’s third act, when we’ve jumped to 2010 and Kol & Adam reconnect at Ebony’s wedding. They’ve both flown back to Melbourne for the big bash: Kol from London, and Adam from Switzerland, where their lives and careers have blossomed over the last decade or so. Kol is no longer the gangly, unsure teenager - he’s transformed into a confident version of the kid we got to know on that sweltering summer road trip (shoutout to actor Elias Anton and his makeup team for a fully convincing age-up). It’s a nod to this change when one of Ebony’s bridesmaids asked Kol when he’s getting married himself? “Well, they gotta make it legal first,” he replies. An echo back to Adam’s casual quip about his ex and the music tapes: saying everything, without saying the obvious.
How will Of An Age make me feel?
You’ll be hard-pressed not to fall in love yourself with Kol’s cheeky innocence or Adam’s laid-back charisma (effortlessly played by Thom Green). It’s one of those movies where there’s rock-solid chemistry between the two leads that feels totally genuine. No doubt that’s down to great performances, but Stolevski’s sensitive directing gets the message across in ways we can’t help but feel. He chooses unusually tight framing for most of the road trip, bringing us right in to Kol & Adam’s faces and every flicker of emotion and reaction they feel. Are the extreme close-ups a metaphor for the repression Kol feels being a closeted gay teen? Perhaps. But that camerawork also achieves an undeniable intimacy that words alone couldn’t: we’re ON this road trip with Kol & Adam, and we’re feeling the connection too.
“[Of An Age is] a film of wonderful intimacy and tangible, electrifying motion, drawing upon those feelings of teenage alienation.” ~ Luke Goodsell
At Of An Age’s conclusion, Kol’s reply about the legality of gay marriage leads to a revelation about Adam that impacts how the two reconnect in the tenderest of ways. While we won’t spoil the outcome, it’s clear that although 11 years have passed, that single day & night in 1999 became one of those electrified, steel-core memories that we carry with us for a lifetime. Like we said at the top of this guide, almost all of us can relate to that chest-squeezing feeling of a magnetic crush that makes all the traffic on your hormonal highway go twice the speed limit. Of An Age deftly tweezes that out of our memory banks, and plonks us right back in those feels.
Yes, discrimination still exists today, of course - especially for members of the migrant or LGBTQIA+ communities. But by telling a story that reaches back in time, Of An Age allows us to reflect on how far we’ve come; how much progress has been carved out. This tale of two men falling in love elevates beyond “just” a gay story, or a coming out story - it’s purely a love story.
Interested in other LGBTQIA+ films? Discover the top 10 streaming titles that explore this powerful theme - or donate to the cause at good.film/donate.
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