Category: Drama

Robin Lord Taylor and Tommy Beardmore star in the dramatic short film Skeletons

From award-winning writer, director and actor Adam DeCarlo, Skeletons is a dramatic and deeply emotional new 18-minute short.

Set on one rainy night, the film concerns a man who must confront the pain and trauma of a past relationship when a former lover unexpectedly arrives on his doorstep.

Packed with mood and atmosphere, the film also features bristling performances from the two lead actors, who may be familiar to some viewers. Tommy Beardmore has popped up recently on shows like Chicago PD, Shameless and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel while Robin Lord Taylor will be instantly recognizable to Batman fans from his long stint playing The Penguin on the beloved series Gotham.

Expertly acted and directed, Skeletons offers up an emotionally charged meditation on grief and asks whether or not we should be willing to forgive those who have hurt us.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Floating

In expertly-made new short film Floating, a Russian astronaut awakens alone on board a space station module after an unfortunate crash. Space debris has left the module severely damaged and any communication with the outside world appears to be severed.

As the astronaut tries to reconnect to the base, strange noises turn his attention to the outside. There are knocks coming from outside the ship. They get closer and closer until a strange character emerges. He’s come to welcome the astronaut with a pie.

Puzzled, scared and believing everything to be a hallucination, the astronaut tries to focus on his communication efforts… but the mysterious man decides to open the door and let himself in.

From director Frankie De Leonardis, Floating, also known as Flotando, shows what a skilled filmmaker can do on a limited budget. Ultimately telling an allegorical story about self-realization and acceptance, this clever sci-fi short packs a surreal comic punch.

Watch a short – and very tense – trailer for Floating below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day explores the sensual experiences of gay Egyptian men

In Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day?, a contemporary queer musical and pseudo-documentary from Egyptian director Mohammad Shawky Hassan, soft speaking voices and a dreamlike soundscape of Egyptian pop music combine to create an almost hallucinatory cinematic experience.

Based on a diary of the filmmaker’s personal love stories, and told in the form of tales from “One Thousand and One Nights,” Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? gives us a glimpse into the sensual experiences of gay Egyptian men.

Telling their stories with humor, tenderness and wit, the power of prose commands attention and allows viewers to be completely swept up in Hassan’s unique vision.

With gorgeous colors, riveting stories, handsome actors and imaginative editing, Shall I Compare You To a Summer’s Day? is a truly unique gay fantasia.

Watch the trailer for Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Watch the trailer for the upcoming Dekkoo-Original Adam in Fragments

Conjuring Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Steven Soderbergh all at once, the trailer for the brand-new Dekkoo-Original Adam in Fragments delivers a small taste of the transgressive sights and sounds to come.

Inspired by crime thrillers of the ’70s, this provocative, gritty drama tells the story of one hustler’s odyssey.

After a prolonged disappearance, Adam (Beau Swartz) reluctantly returns to sex work. Following the urge to protect a young aspiring adult film star, Lucy (Keiva Bradley), from their terrorizing handler, Felix (Francisco Antonio), Adam’s actions trigger a series of events that send violent ripples through the Los Angeles underground sex-trade.

Featuring supporting performances from Jonathan Miller, Ryan Ruffing, Joe Garcia and Tara Emerson, Adam in Fragments is the newest film from Omar Salas Zamora, the filmmaker behind Here Comes Your Man and Nothing But Flowers. This time, he is co-directing along with his Here Comes Your Man lead actor Calvin Picou.

“Adam is a career sex worker,” said the directors. “It was interesting to us to look at Adam as someone who doesn’t view himself as a victim of circumstance, and instead takes pride in a skill he’s mastered. His drug use muddies thing for him, but it was important to us that his story should be one where the sex worker doesn’t necessarily want out because he genuinely doesn’t care. His careful anonymity to keep his professional lifestyle livable until the end was a big draw. His noble aspirations to be in control of his life and accountable for his decisions makes him unaware that he’s on a suicide mission.”

The filmmakers hope that audiences “find the humanity in difficult characters. It wasn’t interesting to try to make them heroes, villains or victims – they just needed to exist.”

You can watch the trailer for Adam in Fragments now on Dekkoo. The film will be available to Dekkoo subscribers in November.

Short Film Spotlight: According to Mateo

Exploring a particularly dark side of desire, the new 20-minute short film According to Mateo offers up a moody exploration of the grey area between pleasure and pain.

Mateo and his boyfriend, Marc, arrive home after a night out with Luke, a guy they’ve just met. After an argument, Mateo leaves their apartment and bumps into a mysterious drug dealer named Jon. Mateo convinces Jon to take him to his house – where he discovers that he can’t feel anything that isn’t pain.

Edgy and sexually-explicit, the film was produced and co-directed by Osama Chami, a former production assistant who gained a wealth of movie-making experience working on the films of Pedro Almodovar.

According to Mateo marks Chami’s directorial debut, along with his filmmaking partner Enrique Gimeno Pedros. You can also find their follow-up short, Young Diego, on Dekkoo later this month.

Watch the trailer for According to Mateo below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Present Still Perfect follows up on a beloved Thai romance

In Present Perfect, his 2017 feature film debut, Thai director Aam Anusorn Soisa-Ngim drew from his own experiences to tell the story of Toey and Oat, a pair of young men who, despite the fact that they both have girlfriends, end up falling into a brief affair during a trip to a small Japanese town.

The film developed a dedicated fanbase in Japan, leading to a successful crowd-funding campaign for this new, highly anticipated sequel. Set four years after the events of the first film, Present Still Perfect reunites the two young lovers – this time on a tropical Thai island.

Oat is now a married man with a son, but Toey has never forgotten their brief romance and won’t give it up so easily.

Tender and heartfelt, the film offers an idealistic view of same-sex relationships in modern day Thailand.

You can catch up on the whole romantic saga right now at Dekkoo. Present Still Perfect is available now, along with the original film. Watch the trailer for Present Still Perfect below.