I Love You More *** (2023, Don Shala, Leonik Sahiti, Shengyl Ismail) – Classic Movie Review 12,626

Don Shala stars as shy Kosovar teenage boy Ben, whose plans finally to meet his first, secret online love Leo are sent into a tailspin, in writer/ director Erblin Nushi’s 2023 sweet and sensitive romantic drama film I Love You More.

Ben (Don Shala) is super thrilled to be about to greet his first love Leo (Leonik Sahiti), a German boy he met and fell in love with online but never so far in person. They have been swearing undying love by message and text for a year now. Ben is making plans for his secret romantic tryst with Leo who is finally arriving from Germany in a month. But then Ben’s mother surprises the family with a life-changing opportunity, when she excitedly announces that they have won the green card lottery to leave immediately to start a new life in America.

Ben wants to live in America, loves his parents, but desperately, overwhelmingly needs to hook up with Leo to make it real. He is ready to do anything to fulfil his totally needed desire to be loved… but he is already loved. One way or another, his first love story with Leo is going to prove his coming of age as well as his coming out.

I Love You More (2023) seems to be a gay romance, and it is, but at heart it is actually a boy’s love story with his mother. It’s so sweet and lovely, beautifully acted and exquisitely filmed in gorgeous looking Kosova. Ben and his mom exude love, warmth and appeal. It runs slow but, like still waters, it runs deep. Ben is so overwhelmed by his first love that he doesn’t know how to handle it, or pretty much anything else. But his simple sincerity and big heart will see him through. Sentimental? Just a bit. But then, why not? Like Ben, it still seems honest and true.

It is filmed in Pejë, Kosovo, a country in Southeast Europe that lies landlocked in the centre of the Balkans, with a population of 1.870,00 people. Most of the dialogue is in Albanian but some is in English.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,626

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com