Category: Cross-Cultural Romance

Short Film Spotlight: One Day This Kid

As told by filmmaker Alexander Farah through a deftly composed array of small yet pivotal moments, the 17-minute short One Day This Kid follows a first-generation Afghan-Canadian man as he struggles to come to terms with being gay against the disapproval of his immigrant parents and takes steps toward establishing an identity of his own under his father’s shadow.

Inspired by the work of renowned artist David Wojnarowicz, the film uses gorgeous cinematography and emotional precision to tell the story of one gay boy growing up in a society that rejects him at all costs.

Delicate and poised, yet deeply powerful, this is the kind of heart-wrenching storytelling that should not be missed. Marking Farah as a filmmaker to watch, the film won the Narrative Short Competition at the 2025 South by Southwest Film Festival and has earned great acclaim at some of the world’s most prestigious cinema forums, including TIFF, the AFI Fest, Slamdance, Festival du Nouveau Cinema and many more.

Watch a teaser trailer for One Day This Kid below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Fashion Victims,’ a 2007 comedy crowd-pleaser from Germany, makes its debut on Dekkoo!

Wolfgang (Edgar Selge) is a middle-aged traveling ladies’ fashion salesman. Persnickety, humorless and self-absorbed, he’s alternately inattentive and insensitive toward wife Erika (Franziska Walser) and their teenage son Karsten (Florian Bartholomäi).

At the start of Fashion Victims, a 2007 comedy from German co-writer and director Ingo Rasper, Wolfgang finds himself in dire straits. His rival is threatening to steal his best customers and he’s also lost his driver’s license.

Desperate to stay one step ahead of his young enemy salesman, he cancels his son’s vacation plans and employs him as an unwilling chauffeur. Things soon go from bad to worse – the bank is after him, the taxman catches up with him, he’s on the outs with his wife, and, perhaps most surprisingly, his son announces that he’s gay… and has fallen in love with his father’s dreaded rival!

Both bullets and misunderstandings start flying once family and foe collide in this sexy screwball comedy.

Watch a short clip from Fashion Victims below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Alan Cumming is exceptional in the thought-provoking generational drama ‘After Louie’

An award-winning gay drama featuring a knockout lead performance by Alan Cumming, After Louie explores the contradictions of modern gay life and history through Sam, a man desperate to understand how he and his community got to where they are today.

As an AIDS activist and member of ACT UP in the ’80s and ’90s, Sam witnessed the deaths of far too many close friends and lovers. Battle-wounded and struggling with survivor’s guilt, Sam now resents the complacency of his former comrades and derides what he sees as the younger generation’s indifference to the politics of sex and death.

When he meets Braeden, a seductive young man played by Zachary Booth, during a late-night outing at the bar, he quickly is able to lower Sam’s guard. As the pair become increasingly intimate, an intergenerational relationship blossoms between them – one capable of reawakening Sam’s artistic soul and reviving his wilted heart.

Through this unconventional romance, Sam is finally forced to deal with the trauma that informs his past, his present and the pair’s unknown future.

Watch the trailer for After Louie below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A queer filmmaker visits a sleepy seaside village in the French rom-com ‘My Life with James Dean’

Still pining for his ex-boyfriend, aloof filmmaker Géraud (Johnny Rasse) has travelled to a seaside town along the North Coast of France to present his newest experimental feature.

The only person keen on seeing Géraud’s new film, however, is Balthazar (Mickaël Pelissier), the local theater’s young projectionist, who becomes increasingly more smitten by the handsome director.

With charm, sex appeal, a fondness for slapstick humor and a subtle homage to the films of Eric Rohmer, this sophisticated romantic comedy from writer/director Dominique Choisy follows several different characters through hotel rooms and nearly empty movie theatres across Normandy as they go to ridiculous extremes in the name of passion. With great reserves of optimism and hope, they keep chasing their romantic feelings, even when the results aren’t entirely what they expected.

Watch the trailer for My Life with James Dean below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Opposites attract in ‘Norwegian Dream,’ a romantic drama from the frozen shores of Scandinavia

Set in and around a fish factory in Trondheim, Norway, director Leiv Igor Devold’s Norwegian Dream follows two young men with completely different backgrounds and life experiences meet and fall into a cautious flirtation.

The men in question are Robert (Hubert Miłkowski), a hard-working Polish immigrant, and Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland), the charismatic, adopted son of a wealthy business owner.

Amidst the conveyor belts, an unexpected relationship develops. Robert struggles to save his mother from financial troubles, while Ivar dreams of a life different from what his family expects of him. However, when Robert realizes that his growing bond with Ivar affects his standing among the other Polish workers, who are considering a strike, he begins to distance himself.

Can their growing love compete against the forces conspiring to keep them apart?

A heartwarming romantic drama from the frozen shores of Scandinavia, Norwegian Dream thoughtfully explores themes of cultural alienation, economic inequality, the search for sexual identity and the ways that opposites sometimes attract.

Watch the trailer for Norwegian Dream below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Head to the beach with ‘High Tide,’ one of the year’s most acclaimed gay films

Marco Pigossi delivers a brilliantly nuanced performance in High Tide as Lourenço, a Brazilian immigrant whose visa is nearing its expiration.

Heartbroken and adrift after his American boyfriend unexpectedly leaves him, Lourenco finds himself alone in Provincetown. Enveloped by the beauty and magic of the seaside community, he grows distressed by the day as his once hopeful future has dimmed into an emotional and physical state of limbo.

When he meets Maurice (James Bland), a kind, vacationing nurse, they form an unexpected connection. Together, they begin to find acceptance with each other while struggling to reconcile their uncertain futures.

For his feature directorial debut, world-renowned playwright Marco Calvani weaves a colorful tapestry of queer lives intersecting in one of North America’s most iconic gay destinations. Bill Irwin and Marisa Tomei co-star in this acclaimed romantic gay drama.

Watch the trailer for High Tide below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Genetica

A moving 15-minute short from Israeli filmmaker Chen Shahuda, Genetica follows Hemi, a 15-year-old boy who is taking swimming lessons… despite having zero interest in learning how to swim.

In spite of this, he is encouraged to continue with the lessons by his macho conservative father. Returning home one day, he stumbles upon a small dance studio and his finds that his interest is suddenly piqued.

After meeting Dani, a flirtatious a Russian dancer, between classes, the direction in which his heart is pulling him becomes all to clear.

When Hemi’s father discovers, however, that his son has been stealing money for dance classes, his newfound passion is quickly called into question.

Genetica is a bittersweet drama about following your heart, no matter what obstacles may present themselves.

Watch the trailer for Genetica below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

An Argentine actor navigates the rough waters of New York City in ‘Nobody’s Watching’

From screenwriter Christina Lazaridi and co-writer/director Julia Solomonoff, Nobody’s Watching follows Nico (Guillermo Pfening), the handsome young star of a popular soap opera in his native Argentina.

At the height of a blossoming career, Nico suddenly and mysteriously leaves home to pursue an acting career in New York. But the promise of film work and a permanent visa evaporates as Nico – too blond to play Latino, too heavily accented to play anything else – finds himself working odd jobs and becoming more desperate, socially and financially.

Ultimately, he must confront the real reasons he left Argentina and take steps toward reclaiming a sense of his own worth.

Nobody’s Watching smartly observes the subtle boundaries that define class, race and opportunity in contemporary America, while shining a light on the immigrant experience and the role that perceived failures can play as stepping stones to self-discovery.

Watch the trailer for Nobody’s Watching below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Singing Telegram

Matt (Eddie Grey) is an aspiring young musician from Sydney, Australia who is living with his boyfriend Daniel (Andrew Chappelle) in New York City.

Not quite living the cosmopolitan American lifestyle he’d imagined, he’s found himself stuck delivering singing telegrams in an effort to make ends meet.

Blinded by his desire to succeed, Matt risks losing the one part of his life he needs most… until a surprise telegram changes his perspective.

Starring, written and co-directed by up-and-coming Broadway actor Eddie Grey, The Singing Telegram is an adorable, colorful and ultimately uplifting romantic musical comedy short about learning to be grateful for what you have while never giving up on your dreams.

Watch a short teaser clip from The Singing Telegram below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.