Category: International Film

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.

What He Did is a chilling new true crime doc from Denmark

From Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, What He Did is a chilling new true crime documentary about psychologist and author Jens Michael Schau.

Back in 1988, allegedly sparked by a fit of jealousy, Schau’s actions led to the death of Christian Kampmann, his boyfriend of thirteen years. At the time, Kampmann had been at the peak of a successful literary career. He had travelled to a small island, along with Schau, to write a continuation of a popular Danish television series. During their stay, something went terribly wrong. But what caused this mysterious death… and why?

Featuring intense and intimate new interviews with Schau, who has since served a full prison sentence for second-degree manslaughter, those questions are explored in What He Did. Schau digs deep, telling the story in his own words and recalling troublesome memories he had long ago tried to suppress – all while a local theater group begins staging a new production based on the shocking incident.

Watch the trailer for What He Did below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

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.

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.

An international gay film franchise is born with the Thai romance Present Perfect

For Present Perfect, his 2017 feature-length film debut, Thai director Aam Anusorn Soisa-Ngim drew from his own experiences to tell the story of Toey and Oat (Adisorn Tonawanik and Kritsana Maroukasonti), a pair of young men who have a brief affair during a trip to the small town of Higashikawa in Japan.

Though there is clearly a spark between them, they’re both on different journeys. While Toey is still recovering from a recent breakup, Oat is engaged to a girlfriend back home – and the burgeoning romance that they soon share is far from guaranteed.

Ending on a cliffhanger, Present Perfect developed a dedicated fanbase in Thailand at the time of its release, which was evidenced by the crowdfunding success of its eventual sequel, Present Still Perfect, a few years later.

Dekkoo is proud to present the original film to American audiences. Now you can go back to the beginning and catch the start of this on-going romantic saga.

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