Category: Adolescence

Short Film Spotlight: Aadat

Filmed in Pakistan in a matter-of-fact style, Aadat is a bracing 13-minute short from writer-director Iqran Rasheed.

Aadat tells the story of a deeply closeted young man from a conservative Muslim family. Gripped with unrealized desires, he dares to hire an attractive young sex worker. The two spend time together alone in a room, cautiously getting closer while fully aware of the risks involved.

A devastating film about one perfectly normal young man who is looking to explore his sexuality in a forbidding Islamic country, Aadat is a sobering and heartbreaking reminder of the basic freedoms that are still not afforded to gay men in many parts of the world today.

Watch a short trailer for Aadat below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Ossan’s Love, a queer romantic comedy series from Hong Kong, comes to Dekkoo

Tin (Edan Lui) has been single his whole life. One day, he discovers that his boss secretly harbors romantic feelings and is even willing to leave his wife to be with him.

Tin confides this news to his friends, only to discover that his co-worker and flatmate, Muk is also deeply in love with him. Even though Tin has never ever thought about dating another man, he finds himself overwhelmed by his new popularity and slowly falling for the men who hold him dear.

Originally broadcast in Hong Kong, Ossan’s Love is a charming romantic series based on a Japanese drama of the same name. Both shows are notable as the first mainstream television series to feature gay love as a central storyline in their respective regions.

You can watch the full first season of Ossan’s Love now on Dekkoo!

Short Film Spotlight: Sleepover

An eight-minute short film from Swedish director Jimi Vall Peterson, Sleepover follows Emil and Adam, two seemingly straight young men who have been friends since junior high. After a night together at the movies, Emil decides he is going to crash at Adam’s apartment.

The two young men end up sharing a double bed. In the middle of the night, Emil awakens and his unspoken feelings for Adam start to become clear. But is he willing to test the boundaries of their friendship?

A simple, but well-executed short film Sleepover perfectly captures those youthful pangs of unrequited love.

Sleepover is now available on Dekkoo.

A married man falls for a much younger guy in the South Korean drama The Poet and the Boy

The Poet and the Boy follows an aimless, seemingly straight poet in his late 30s who has spent all his life on the same island, mostly living off the hard work and careful planning of his more responsible wife.

Spending most of his time daydreaming, he longs to express himself creatively, but his poetry lacks passion and depth – something that the other members of his writers group are quick to point out.

One day, the poet meets a teenage boy working at a donut shop and develops romantic feelings he has never had before. Suddenly, his life and work begins to improve. He’s finally found his muse while falling helplessly in love with another man for the first time. But when he discovers that his wife is pregnant, he is faced with a very difficult decision.

The feature-length debut of South Korean filmmaker Kim Yang-hee, The Poet and the Boy tackles marriage, creativity and longing in a refreshingly honest manner.

Watch the trailer for The Poet and the Boy below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

A popular teen romance series gets the feature-length film treatment with Gameboys: The Movie

Young love is is never smooth, but when you add the pandemic into it, problems seem to pop up at every turn. Based on the popular “Boys Love” series, Gameboys: The Movie follows the story of two young gamers turned lovers as they try desperately to keep their relationship alive despite myriad obstacles.

Cairo (Elijah Canlas) has moved in with Gavreel (Kokoy de Santos). As their relationship is in a new and uncertain phase, Cairo is hesitant to do anything physical… no matter how much Gavreel tries to initiate it.

As the boys try to make the best of the situation, Gavreel’s ex-boyfriend, Terrence, shows up. And then Cairo’s gaming buddy, Wesley. And then Gavreel’s conservative Aunt Susan insists on staying for a few days. While the quartet of lovesick boys enjoy their time cooped up with one another, they have to tiptoe around Aunt Susan’s intolerant ways.

After defying distance, nosy friends and family and even COVID, will the two boys be able to prove that their love for one another is strong enough to withstand fate and circumstance?

Watch the trailer for Gameboys: The Movie below. This sexy and heartfelt new romance is now available on Dekkoo.

The powerful gay drama The Last Match celebrates it’s 10th anniversary this year

Originally released in 2013, The Last Match centers on an intense love affair between two seemingly straight young men.

Reiner and Yosvani are best friends and soccer mates. Handsome Reinier, in order to support his mother, his wife and their baby turns to sex work. Meanwhile, the shy Yosvani is reluctantly engaged to a girl and lives with her and her bombastic loan shark father.

After a furtive kiss at a nightclub, the two young men quickly fall hard for one another. And as their love intensifies, the challenge is not with them but with their unforgiving Havana neighborhood… a place from which they desperately want to escape.

The two leads are charismatic and unforgettable as the super-charged lovers in this powerful drama from director Antonio Hens.

Celebrating it’s 10-year anniversary this year, The Last Match is now available on Dekkoo.

A family struggles with coming out in this heartwarming comedy-drama set in 1973 Cape Cod

Set in 1973, Wild About Harry follows Harry Goodhart (Tate Donovan), a British widower who relocates to Cape Cod with his two teen daughters to start a new furniture business. As daughters Madeline and Daisy (Danielle Savre and Skye McCole Bartusiak) adjust to their new lives, Harry struggles to withhold a deep secret – his new business partner, Theodore (Adam Pascal), is more than just that.

Trying to fit in with the cool kids at school, the girls sneak into a nearby gay club. There, Madeline discovers the truth about her father. The secrets that each keep slowly threaten to tear the family apart – especially when word gets out about the new family in town.

Set during a time when American society was redefining its national identity as well as its personal views, Wild About Harry perfectly captures the look and the language of the period in which it’s set. Alternately funny and heartbreaking, the film tells a parallel love story, richly painted on a canvas of small town suspicion, traditional family values and the rapidly changing sexual identity of America in an era of unrest and progressive change.

Watch the trailer for Wild About Harry below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.