Category: International Film

Short Film Spotlight: Two-Headed Calves

The 29-minute short Two-Headed Calves follows bride and groom Johannes and Marie (Andreas Hammer and Jennifer Sabel).

At the beginning of the film, a torrential downpour breaks out in the middle of their outdoor wedding reception… and that turns out to be the least of their problems.

The biggest issue is that Johannes has been keeping a secret from Marie for the entirety of their relationship. He’s gay. He always has been, and he always will be. But that hasn’t stopped his meddling, conservative parents from trying to fix what they perceive as a problem.

Working with an unorthodox personal conversion therapist, Johannes momentarily believes he has overcome his own sexuality and can bring happiness to every disapproving person in his life – even if it comes at the cost of his own.

But when everything that can go wrong does go wrong during the wedding, it seems like a sign that he needs to start being open and honest – especially with his new bride.

Using a found footage aesthetic, German director Benjamin Kramme crafts a painfully funny family comedy that also brilliantly skewers the entire notion of conversion therapy.

Watch the trailer for Two-Headed Calves below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘The Harvesters’ explores sexuality, masculinity, and religion in a conservative farming community

The Harvesters follows Janno (Brent Vermeulen), a South African teen from a very particular type of family. His parents are deeply invested in religion, white Afrikaner solidarity and their farm. A sensitive boy, Janno’s interests lie elsewhere.

When his parents decide to bring a troubled, but charismatic kid named Pieter (Alex van Dyk) into the household, a struggle for dominance soon ensues.

As Pieter slyly draws various family members under his spell, Janno begins to sense that he’s being replaced as the favored son. The boys soon start a dangerous fight for power, heritage and parental love that will change both of their lives forever.

A stirring, subtly homoerotic take on the myth of Cain and Abel, The Harvesters explores repressed sexuality, religion and masculinity in the deep South African countryside. The feature-length debut of Greek-African filmmaker Etienne Kallosis, the film offers up tense and pitiless drama about the intersection of familial and cultural dynamics.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Casa de Bonecas

Supple young bodies fuse and ooze in the delirious audiovisual freak-out Casa de Bonecas.

Kind of like a mix of John Waters and David Lynch, this experimental – and experiential – 15-minute short from Brazilian writer-director George Pedrosa doesn’t tell a story so much as establish a deeply weird vibe.

This mind-melting film follows three scantly-clad queer performance artists as they descend into a trippy rabbit hole of madness – a dark, wet place where the grotesque and the sensual merge and anyone who enters is seduced by the pink secretions that lie within.

There is plenty of gross-out imagery in store as the film gleefully sashays through various genres – musical, comedy, sci-fi and horror, just to name a few – and our heroes transform into beautiful creatures who dance, devour and arouse.

A cross between your worst nightmares and your wildest wet dreams, Casa de Bonecas is thoroughly bonkers in the best possible way.

Watch a brief clip from Casa de Bonecas below. The full short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

John Benjamin Hickey stars in beloved filmmaker Eytan Fox’s cross-cultural romance ‘Sublet’

Tony Award-winning theatre veteran John Benjamin Hickey stars in Sublet as Michael, a travel columnist for The New York Times who reluctantly goes on a trip to Tel Aviv to write an article after suffering a tragedy.

Leaving behind some unresolved relationship troubles with his husband, Michael just wants to do his research and fly back home as soon as possible. But when he sublets an apartment from Tomer, an incredibly attractive young film student played by newcomer Niv Nissim, he suddenly finds himself drawn into the life of the city.

The intense bond he forms with this casually seductive younger man ends up transforming both their lives in unexpected ways.

The newest feature from acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox, the writer-director behind Walk on Water and Yossi and Jagger, Sublet is sexy, charming, thought-provoking and ultimately life-affirming.

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

Director Marco Berger explores toxic masculinity and homoerotic tension in ‘Horseplay’

During a scorching Argentine holiday, a group of male friends get together at a luxury villa. They drink, party hard, make videos together… and begin to test one another’s boundaries. A rare mix of homophobia and horseplay come together to create a wildly homoerotic atmosphere.

A twisted triangle of friends – a repressed gay man, a secret bisexual boy and a complete homophobe – will push the simmering tensions to their breaking point.

Prolific writer-director Marco Berger, the award-winning filmmaker behind Taekwondo, Hawaii, Young Hunter and The Blonde One, expertly amplifies the homoerotic undercurrents of male friendships – exploring his characters’ toned physiques as much as their inner thoughts.

While the surface of Horseplay has a wealth of eye-candy, the film also offers an intelligent and challenging critique of masculinity in its most toxic and dangerous form.

Watch the very NSFW trailer for Horseplay below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Director Bertrand Mandico offers up a visually stunning queer allegory with ‘The Wild Boys’

The Wild Boys, the debut feature from prolific French short film director Bertrand Mandico, is ready to blow your mind.

Set on a small island at the beginning of the 20th century, the film tells the tale of five adolescent boys (all played by female-identifying actresses) who come from wealthy families, but find themselves increasingly drawn to the occult.

Looking to explore lives of crime and transgression, the group collectively commits a brutal crime – aided by ‘Trevor,’ a strange deity of chaos they can’t seem to control.

The boys are soon punished, forced to board a boat with a lecherous sea captain who is hell-bent on taming their ferocious appetites. They arrive on a lush island where dangers and pleasures abound… and the boys start to transform in both mind and body.

Gorgeously shot on 16mm and brimming with homoeroticism, genderfluidity and sly, subversive humor, The Wild Boys will take you on a heady, hedonistic journey you won’t soon forget. It’s a colorful, unique and strangely funny underground queer masterpiece.

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

‘In the Room Where He Waits’ comes to Dekkoo just in time for Halloween!

Set sometime during the earlier days of the pandemic, In the Room Where He Waits is a queer psychological horror film that uses isolation to its advantage.

Daniel Monks stars at Tobin Wade, an up-and-coming theatre actor who is about to have his first major break on Broadway in a production of ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ His plans change, however, when he learns of his father’s recent passing and is forced to return home to Australia for the funeral.

Stuck in a Brisbane hotel room while he waits out his two-week quarantine, Tobin begins to unravel. He’s not ready to confront a past he thought he’d long ago left behind. Things take an even darker turn when he begins to notice traces of another person in his room.

Soon, the hotel’s dark past and Tobin’s own repressions coalesce, manifesting in a malignant force that only grows stronger with each passing night.

The feature-length debut of short film director Timothy Despina Marshall, In the Room Where He Waits is a clever and stylishly-crafted exploration of grief, identity and the supernatural.

Watch the trailer for In the Room Where He Waits below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.