Same same, but different

A few weeks ago, the Goethe Institute hosted a German film festival in Tallinn. I had a friend visiting from Germany, and one of my flatmates is Austrian, so we decided to check out a film called "Same Same but Different." In short, the film is about a young German tourist that falls in love with a Cambodian prostitute, finds out she is HIV-positive, and does all he can to ensure that she gets the proper medicine. The film ends with the recently-married couple discovering that she is pregnant. The real life couple on whom the film is based is still married, and the husband is still HIV-negative.

While much can be said about the film itself, what struck me most was the trailer.



The German phrase roughly translates to "In your early twenties, are you ready for the love of your life?" Ignore for the second that that phrase is a gross misrepresentation of the film... I'm not sure I would be ready to discover the love of my life is HIV-positive at ANY age. Aside from that, I can sort of see why this ad campaign might work in Europe. Several people I know seem to think that 28 might be an early age to get married. Meanwhile, it a lot of my American friends seem to think that 25 or 26 is the ideal age to get married. If I met the love of my life tomorrow, I wouldn't marry him next month, (after all, if he is the love of my life, he'll still be around in a few years, right?), but I wouldn't spend so much time trying to convince myself that he cannot possibly be "the one" because I'm only at the verge of my 23rd birthday. The film's protagonist seemed almost as concerned that he was 21 as he was concerned that this woman is in Cambodia and HIV-positive. So what do you think? If you were asked if you wanted to see a movie about meeting the love of your life in your early 20s and wondering if you were ready, would you actually want to see it? To me, it just seems too normal.