Category: International Film

Short Film Spotlight: The Carer

A touching 15-minute short film from writer-director Christine Parker, The Carer stars veteran British character actor Peter Eyre as Ari, a sophisticated and urbane gay man who moves into an elder care facility and encounters Beau, played by Barney Glover.

Beau, an exceptionally handsome a former thief, is in the process of straightening his life out and has now been put in charge of Ari’s day-to-day care. Their unlikely meeting changes both men in profound ways – forcing Ari, who recently lost his long-term partner, to examine the tenderness of his past while Beau looks toward the possibility of a brighter future.

Examining a uniquely intimate professional relationship, The Carer is equally heartwarming and heartbreaking.

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

Pride Month Spotlight: Queer Docs

For Pride Month this year, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some amazing documentaries.

A mix of films both underseen and celebrated, heartbreaking and triumphant, with varied tones and subject matter, this collection of docs take us deep inside true queer stories of life, loss and love.

Bridegroom, Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine and Gemmel & Tim tell true stories of people taken from us too soon, but whose lives and legacies have left us left us changed for the better.

50 Years of Fabulous, Oriented, A Queer Country and Pride & Protest take us to specific places to celebrate the power of community. Drag Race star Jamal Sims’ doc When the Beat Drops offers up a fun and fast-paced history of bucking in Atlanta.

An Act of Love and This is What Love in Action Looks like capture activism in unlikely places. Finally, Electroboy and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood explore two fascinating queer figures from two very different time periods.

The Pride Month Spotlight: Queer Docs collection is available on Dekkoo now – and all throughout the month of June.

Short Film Spotlight: Mar

Mar follows Xavier and Eduardo (Lourenço Seruya and João Santos Silva), two lovers who decide to spend their summer vacation in a small town on the coast of Portugal. While planning their trip, they never expected to be be faced with a dark mystery that leads to seduction and betrayal.

The pair aim to visit a childhood friend named Cristovao (Diogo Tavares) – unaware that he’s harboring an explosive secret known only to his enigmatic mother (Sylvie Rocha). When that secret is later revealed, sexual tensions begin to rise and someone’s fate is unexpectedly sealed.

From writer-director William Vitoria, Mar is a tense, gorgeously shot 25-minute short inspired by old-school erotic thrillers.

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

Tainted Souls is a gritty and intense Italian crime drama

The complex lives of a group of seemingly different tenants in a cheap Roman apartment building come crashing together in Tainted Souls, an inventive and unsettling Italian crime drama.

Mauro (Maurizio Tesei) has manic ambitions that always seem to outpace his limited means. This causes great strife with his wife Simona (Giulia Bevilacqua). Looking to make something of himself, he gets involved in the business of local crime lord Carmine (Nuccio Siano), which may lead to his downfall.

Meanwhile, former bodybuilder Marcello (Vinicio Marchioni) is married to Chiara (Anna Foglietta), but having a secret affair with Walter (Vincenzo Salemme), a professor and author who also serves as the narrator of the story.

Between the walls of this rundown apartment complex just outside of Rome, all of these disparate lives converge into each other. Will anyone be left standing at the end of this intense character drama… or will a few wayward souls bring everyone down with them?

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

New Series: Give Me Back the Night

Set during the middle of the pandemic in 2021, Give Me Back the Night is a smart, sexy, funny and fast paced new series from Columbia – exploring a new relationship which opens up some old wounds.

Leonardo (Juan Manuel Velez Casas), a creative young man who dabbles in sewing and illustration, is just trying to survive his day job – working in a supermarket surrounded by pandemic-related chaos. When he learns that his biological mother, thought to be dead, is very much alive and wants to reconnect with him, it completely upends his day-to-day life.

Meanwhile, Felix (Sergio Quevedo Barreto) is a photographer with rough and tumble good looks who has his eyes firmly planted on the stars. He has recently run away from a disapproving home. When he meets Leonardo on the street and the two young men form an unlikely connection, they’re budding relationship finally allows them to explore their suppressed desires and freedoms.

Together, they begin to face the issues that keep them up at night. They soon learn that they must reckon with their pasts and repair their fractured family ties in order to move forward and grow together.

Watch the trailer for Give Me Back the Night below. The full six-episode first season is streaming now 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.