A 1969 tune from the Rolling Stones has the following opening line: ‘You can’t always get what you want’, and this is what ‘Thebes Crossing’ is all about, live being unfair to the ones who follow their dream, their path of love, their heart. Mansour, a young Afghan man who works as an army interpreter falls in love with a British soldier whilst at war. After a brief period, Mansour travels half of the world to London to be rejoined with the man he loves, but their whole deal falls apart when Mansour finds out that in life you cannot always get what you want.

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This sad and poetic love story seems like a cut-off from a beat poem that Ginsberg forgot to publish during his life. The whole concept of this short has the perfect beat vibe authors today love to feel and see. This short is for poetry what Leonard Cohen’s poems were for songwriting some thirty years ago. If an aspiring poet watches Frank Seliada's ‘Thebes Crossing’ he might find the inspiration to write the next ‘Sunflower Sutra’ or ‘Howl’, as the theme is extremely generous, and a whole book stands hidden in Mansour’s micro gestures.

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Mansour’s travel to London only to meet his soulmate has a deep interior meaning, having the role of a mind-opening journey for the young soul. The whole disappointment he feels whilst being rejected can be seen deep in his eyes, as it pours from the inside to his face. The phone call in the end and the beret left on the bench represent the last nail in the coffin of the dream that died with his hope. A sad story filled with a strong poetic background that has the potential of becoming a cult classic.

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Written by Vlad A. Gheorghiu