Category: Drama

Three friends come together for a revelatory weekend in the heartfelt dark comedy Miles from Nowhere

A new feature-length film from creative partners Jono Mitchell and Madison Hatfield, the prolific pair behind acclaimed, Dekkoo-favorite short films like Max, Making a Scene and Jenna Gets an Abortion, Miles from Nowhere is a moving comedy-drama about life, death and everything in between.

Miles (Seth Dunlap) is a young man coming to terms with a recent terminal cancer diagnosis. Looking to reconnect with Sammy and Victor (Shane Howell and Cristian Gonzalez), two formerly close friends with whom he’s grown distant, he sets up a weekend trip to his family’s remote cabin.

During their retreat, he aims to tell his pals about his diagnosis, make up for lost time and confront some of his past mistakes. When Sammy and Victor reveal a secret of their own, Miles learns that he may not know his friends as well as he thinks.

Bitingly funny, but equally and poignant, Miles from Nowhere examines the shifting nature of relationships, the price of silence and secrets, and the confusion – not clarity – that can overcome a person faced with the reality of their own death.

Watch the trailer for Miles from Nowhere below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A swimmer’s relationship with his coach causes family problems – and an arranged marriage – in the coming-of-age drama Beyto

Beyto (Burak Ates) is a young man whose family are Turkish immigrants living in Switzerland. A dutiful student and an attractive and popular rising star at his local swimming club, he strives to make them proud, but his family’s stringent views about homosexuality means he has to keep a whole portion of his life and his identity secret.

Just as Beyto begins to discover first love with his coach, Mike (Dimitri Stapfer), his parents get word from friends who spotted him at Gay Pride Parade and become desperate to shut down any rumors that he’s gay.

Shocked and ashamed by Beyto’s budding relationship with another man, his parents lure their son to their home village in Anatolia and start arranging his wedding to Seher (Ecem Aydin), a female friend from his childhood. Suddenly, Beyto finds himself at the center of an unbearable love triangle.

A subtle, sensuous and moving love story, Beyto examines the drama of family tradition and integration, expressing the dilemmas of its characters while never losing sight of their humanity and love for one another.

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

Cicada is a feast for the eyes as well as the heart

Co-written by Matthew Fifer and Sheldon D. Brown, who also star in the film, the must-see new indie comedy-drama Cicada examines inter-racial relationships, bisexual identity and sexual abuse while also exploring the intricacies of falling in love and how that can go hand-in-hand with uncovering uncomfortable truths about one’s self along the way.

Fifer, who also co-directs with Kieran Mulcare, stars as Ben a young bisexual man who, after a string of unsuccessful encounrers with women, decides it’s time to go “back on the dick.” He soon develops an intense relationship with Sam (Brown), a man of color struggling with deep wounds. As their summer romance progresses and their intimacy grows, Ben’s past begins crawling to the surface – putting the pair’s still-burgeoning love affair in jeopardy.

Co-starring Cobie Smulders, David Burtka and SNL breakout star Bowen Yang, Cicada is easily one of the most acclaimed gay films of the past several years. Vogue said that it “will stay with you long after the credits roll.” And The Jam Report called it “one of the most beautifully-crafted pieces of queer cinema of recent times.” We firmly agree with both assessments.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Good Night

When Aram (Yianni Katsifas), a young Armenian man who only recently came out of the closet, goes out on a first date with the much more confident and experienced Jason (Robert Walker Jeffery), he must decide how far he’s willing to go in order to make sure they both have a good time.

When they go back to Aram’s place, his nervousness and uncertainty about what he wants leads to some majorly awkward – and boldly sexually-explicit – tension in bed. Taking place almost in real time, Good Night is a deeply unabashed 10-minute short about a sexual encounter that never quite gels.

Gorgeously shot in crisp black and white and featuring committed performances from lead actors Katsifas and Jeffrey, the film captures how uncomfortable it can be to hook up with someone when you’re not totally on the same page – especially when the whole experience is new to you.

Good Night is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: French director André Téchiné’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama ‘Being 17’

From André Téchiné, the renowned writer-director behind the queer classic Wild Reeds, comes Being 17, a moving exploration of unexpected adolescent love.

Damien and Thomas (Kacey Mottet Klein and Corentin Fila) are teens from very different backgrounds who go to the same school… and are constantly fighting. Damien is the gawky son of a doctor and a military pilot stationed abroad. He can’t seem to stop staring at Thomas, the handsome bi-racial son of local farmers who reacts with hostility to Damien’s longing.

Damien’s mother Marianne (Sandrine Kiberlain) is treating Thomas’s ailing mother at the farm, a snowy two-hour ride outside of town. When she needs to be admitted to the hospital, Marianne quite naturally offers to take Thomas into their home for a temporary stay. Forced to live together under one roof, the two boys must work through their hostility, emerging attraction and complicated desires.

Co-written by Celine Sciamma, the award-winning filmmaker behind Tomboy, Petite Maman and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Being 17 is a critically-acclaimed coming-of-age gem that accurately captures both youthful friction and attraction.

Watch the trailer for Being 17 below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Don’t miss the deliciously sexy new Dekkoo-original series ‘We Will Never Die’

Sascha Weingarten stars in the brand-new Dekkoo-original series We Will Never Die as Philipp, a seductive, but dangerous criminal from Germany who catches the eye of an Italian tourist named Luca (Jacopo Garfagnoli) while vacationing on the Greek island of Rhodes.

What begins as an innocent encounter between the two ends up taking a sinister turn when Luca witnesses an illicit drug deal. A deadly game of cat and mouse is soon set in motion – continuing in Germany where more men are unexpectedly pulled into harm’s way.

A deliciously twisted new offering from the mind of prolific filmmaker Tor Iben (the German director behind films like The Visitor, Orpheus’ Song, The Passenger and The Year I Lost My Mind), We Will Never Die is a sexually-charged international gay action-thriller that will keep you guessing until the bitter end.

Watch the trailer for We Will Never Die below. The full five-episode first season is available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Nanoblood

From writer Nick Roth and director Lindsay Haun, Nanoblood is a short film that tosses comedy, neo-noir, horror and sci-fi all into the blender at once, telling the story of three young lovers and the bots that tear them apart.

Not for the squeamish (expect lots of blood and some thrillingly Cronenberg-influenced body horror), this 38-minute film follows Gary (Anthony Rutowicz), a painter recently out of a day job, and his wife Lisa (Amanda Fuller), a graduate student in nanobiology.

Lisa’s funding is contingent on her participation in an experimental trial to replace her blood cells with microscopic, artificially intelligent robots. When the pair decide to make some extra cash by renting Gary’s painting studio out to Toby (Gabriel Miller), a mysterious visiting scholar also participating in Lisa’s clinical trial, their bodies begin to change in unexpected ways… and sexual desire begins to emerge in unexpected places.

Ambitious, provocative, sexually-frank and surprisingly timely, Nanoblood tells a large, inventive sci-fi story on an intimate scale.

Watch the trailer for Nanoblood below. The full short film is available now on Dekkoo.