Absurd but also touching

In the deeply affecting and darkly amusing “Beauty in Trouble,” inspired by the Robert Graves poem of the same name, director Jan Hrebejk and co-writer Petr Jarchovsky embrace with terrific panache the eternal human comedy and skewer the lingering corruption of the former Czechoslovakia’s bleak Communist era. At once sardonic and compassionate, it is a masterwork, an instant classic with a superb ensemble cast and charged with that highly developed sense of the absurd that is the hallmark of Eastern European cinema.

In the wake of the severe 2002 Prague flood, Jarda (Roman Luknar), an auto mechanic, resorts to stripping stolen cars to support his family. His wife, Marcela (Anna Geislerova), meets Evzen (Josef Ab- rham), whose heisted Volvo leads to Jarda’s arrest, at a police station. The silver-haired, bearded Evzen is a wealthy Czech emigre, long living in Tuscany. He has returned to Prague to reclaim his family home, seized by the Communists in 1956 and now returned to him. Kind, attractive and sophisticated, Evzen could prove to be Marcela’s salvation.

Consistently inventive and surprising, “Beauty in Trouble” evokes human nature in all its strengths and weaknesses, contradictions and ambiguities. It is itself a beauty -- rich in imagery, deftly paced and structured.

-- Kevin Thomas

“Beauty in Trouble.” Unrated with strong sexuality, adult themes. In Czech with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. At Laemmle’s Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869; Playhouse 7, 673 Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500; Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 981-9811.

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The plight of Muslim gays

Gay Indian activist-filmmaker Parvez Sharma uses the word “jihad” not in its current meaning of “holy war” but in its traditional sense of “struggle” or “to strive in the path of God.” “A Jihad for Love” is a courageous documentary on the plight of gays in the Muslim world, and it reveals how the devout attempt to reconcile their sexual orientation and their faith, which is widely believed to condemn homosexuality, based on a brief passage in the Koran referring to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and some statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad.

Gay Muslims are up against the same challenges as gay Christians and Jews in regard to those who insist on literal interpretations of holy texts and to ecclesiastical resistance to scholarship that suggests their actual meanings are not intended to be homophobic. But by and large, gay Muslims are far more endangered than Christian and Jewish gays, especially in Iran, where reportedly more than 4,000 people accused of committing homosexual acts have been put to death since the revolution in 1979.

Not surprisingly, many of Sharma’s interviewees are refugees. The greatest contrast in circumstances occurs in Turkey, which has no laws against homosexuality but does not grant refugees resident status.

Therefore, four young gay Iranians who have fled their homeland await word from a United Nations commission as to whether they will be able to emigrate to Canada -- or be sent back to Iran.

Yet, a pair of Turkish lesbian lovers live happily and fairly openly.

-- K.T.

“A Jihad for Love.” Unrated. In 12 languages with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes. At the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.