Category: Adolescence

Short Film Spotlight: Wilma

Wilma tells the story of an unusual meeting between an estranged father and his precocious child.

Wilma is a young kid who goes to meet her dad for the very first time at the trailer park where he lives. What the dad doesn’t know, however, is that the son he once fathered now identifies as a girl and has changed her name.

A touching and funny 11-minute short film from Icelandic writer-director Haukur Bjorgvinsson, an accomplished artist who has worked mostly as a sound designer in commercials and music videos, Wilma earned massive acclaim at film festivals all around the world.

The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2020 Flickerfest in Sydney, the Audience Award at the 2019 Luststeifen Film Festival and the Best Original Screenplay Award at the 2019 Face á Face Festival in France. It was also nominated for Best Short Film at the Icelandic Film and Television Awards. In fact, this short film has been so successful that Bjorgvinsson is currently working on a feature-length adaptation.

Wilma is available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Malik

A hard-hitting 15-minute short film from French writer-director Nathan Carli, Malik concerns two men who are looking to make a better life for themselves, but find that escape is more difficult than either of them had hoped.

Malik and his boyfriend live in a low-income neighborhood that is less than accommodating to their lifestyle. The local homophobic attitudes have made their day-to-day lives unsafe.

They have formed a plan and attempt to flee the city, but Malik’s older brother Walid and his gang refuse to let them get away easily. What begins as an attempt to escape to greener pastures soon becomes a desperate run for their lives.

An intense drama, Malik has earned acclaim at film festivals and is now available to Dekkoo subscribers.

Enjoy three unique short films from up-and-coming Spanish director Manu Roma

Manu Roma is an up-and-coming filmmaker from Barcelona who uses his work to tell personal queer stories. To give you a strong sense of his burgeoning talent, we have collected his first three short films, all made over the past three years.

First up is Bones, a 9-minute film about Victor, a 20-year-old with two immediate goals: to lose his virginity and, more dangerously, lose as much weight as possible before his 21st birthday.

Shot gorgeously in black and white, Roma’s next short, the 19-minute Anonymous, uses a first-person perspective to tell the stories of three men who go cruising for sex in different locations around Barcelona.

The final film, The Virgins, is a 13-minute slice of meta-fiction about the making of a short film. When the two stars of a new movie drop out at the last minute, the director and his boom operator find themselves taking over the lead roles and going to unexpected romantic lengths to tell their story.

A visionary filmmaker worth keeping your eye on, Dekkoo is proud to bring the work of Manu Roma to American audiences.

Bones, Anonymous and The Virgins are all available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Jay

From Taiwanese director Szu-Wei Chen, Jay is a darkly funny and casually disturbing 14-minute drama that isn’t afraid to explore a particularly cringe-worthy taboo.

The film follows the titular character, a mysterious 13-year-old boy Jay, played by Nick Wang. Reaching a pivotal moment of sexual awakening, the teen finds himself suddenly fascinated by his toned and attractive older brother. Spying on him at every opportunity, including during a sexual encounter with a girlfriend, Jay’s curiosity morphs into an all-consuming obsession.

Playing out with very little dialog, the film gets its point across mostly through eerie suggestion. The story plays out mostly through visuals and emotions thanks to Wang’s lead performance – which, while somewhat stoic, conveys everything we need to know about this youngster’s misguided affections.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Jay below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Two troubled boys fall in love in the Romeo & Juliet-inspired On the Fringe of Wild

Two young men fall in love under harsh circumstances in the moving new romance On the Fringe of Wild.

Harrison Browne stars as Peter, a teenager who dreams of leaving his small Ontario town to pursue life as an artist, but his homophobic father, played by Andrew Bee, insists on turning him into “a man.” Sending him on a hunting trip one cold winter break, tensions run high and Peter runs away.

Lost, cold and reaching his breaking point, Peter meets another young man named Jack, played by Cameron Stewart. Jack is also desperate to escape his toxic family situation. A romance quickly develops between the two boys as they hide away in a secluded cabin, discovering one another and themselves. But the world outside eventually pulls them back and they’re soon stuck facing the circumstances they tried so desperately to flee.

Inspired by Romeo and Juliet and set in the early 2000s, On the Fringe of Wild offers up an early 21st Century snapshot of queer adolescent boys on the verge of growing up into men and discovering their authentic selves. The film was shot in rural regions of Northern Ontario, Canada, mostly outdoors amongst the beautiful, but cold, stark and melancholic winter landscapes.

Watch the trailer for On the Fringe of Wild below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Eastern Boys

The critically-acclaimed Eastern Boys follows the cautious relationship that develops between a single man and a much-younger sex-worker.

Arriving from all over the Eastern Bloc, the young men who frequent the Gare du Nord train station in Paris are scraping by however they can, forming gangs for support and protection and living in fear of being caught by the police and deported.

When a bourgeois, middle-aged man named Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) approaches a boyishly handsome Ukrainian immigrant named Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), he learns the young man is willing to do anything for some cash.

When Daniel brings the young man home, it leads to an alarming and dangerous home invasion. But once the men are able to spend some time alone together, they end up forming an unexpectedly profound relationship. The drastically different circumstances of their lives ultimately reveal hidden facets of the city they share.

Presented in four parts, this absorbing, critically-acclaimed drama from director Robin Campillo (“The Returned,” BPM (Beats Per Minute)) is centered around relationships that defy easy categorization, in which motivations and desires are poorly understood – even sometimes by those to whom they belong.

Watch the trailer for Eastern Boys below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.