Adapting his autobiographical novel, director Abdellah Taïa tells the story of a gay Moroccan boy finding self-realization and personal strength within a society that shuns him. Homosexuality, however, is not the only difficulty confronting Abdellah (the main character shares the same name as the filmmaker)-his father abuses his mom, he feels an attraction for his older brother Slimane, and older men in the neighborhood prey on him for their frustrated sexual needs. Needing to escape the tensions in his environment, the restless teen goes on a road trip to the coast with Slimane. When the two are separated and Abdellah must depend on his own resources, it raises the possibility of a journey even farther from home and toward the European university education for which he longs. Telling the story through two different time periods and locales, Taïa employs long, expressive takes (the film is shot by the brilliant Agnès Godard) that rely more on visual expression than dialogue. Salvation Army is not only brave for tackling taboo issues in Moroccan society and finding new ways to represent the queer Arab experience, it is also a compelling cinematic debut from someone whose prior work has been exclusively in prose.