Category: International Film

New This Week – 6/11/21

Jacques is an older writer from Paris. Arthur is a young student in Rennes. They instantly fall in love. But they’ll have to face rejection and sickness to keep it that way. ‘Sorry Angel’ is available to watch now on Dekkoo!

Produced in 1967, this amazing 22-minute short film introduces us to four transwomen who are subjected to a six-month psychological project and then grilled about their personal lives. This unique exploitation documentary offers a rare and provocative glimpse into pre-Stonewall queer life. ‘Queens At Heart’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Don’t miss: LGBT Film Archivist and Historian Jenni Olson on Queens at Heart

Knowing your queer history is essential, and the award-winning ‘When The Beat Drops’ offers an immersive deep-dive inside the growing culture of bucking—an energetic, hyper-athletic, dance phenomenon cultivated by queer people of color in the Deep South. Watch ‘When the Beat Drops’ on Dekkoo!

Jesse, a mixed race transgender teen, arrives from Switzerland for a cross-country road trip with her estranged father Marcus. They strike a weighty deal, one with serious repercussions for their relationship and their trip. ‘Jesse’ is now playing on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Arturo and Alessandro have been a couple for 15 years. When their friend leaves her children in their care, their tired routine is turned upside down.

New This Week – 6/4/21

In this new Dekkoo-original series two very different young men come together in an episodic series that follows their relationship – from beginning to end. Watch the official trailer now!

When Lucas travels to visit his sister he meets Antonio who works as a boatswain in a local fishing boat. An intense romance blossoms between the two of them, and with it their strength, their independence and their adulthood become immovable with the ebb and flow of the tide. ‘The Strong Ones’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Felix is a friendless achiever in high school whose life changes after the arrival of the half-American Snyder brothers, entangling him in their dark ambitions. Watch ‘2 Cool 2 B 4Gotten’ now on Dekkoo!

Bernardo is an old Art History teacher recently retired and widowed from his wife Cecilia. One day he runs into Víctor, a piano player and long lost love from Bernardo’s past that he hasn’t seen in almost 40 years. ‘Chords’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: “Both sprawling and intimate, it tells a story dealing with life, love, friendship, mortality and, yes, AIDS, in a manner that is relentlessly and deliberately unsentimental in tone but which nevertheless proves to be quite affecting.” – rogerebert.com

Now Available: Romeos

How do you love someone if you don’t show who you are?

Twenty-year old Lukas (Rick Okon) is a prisoner in his own body. As a pre-op trans person, he is constantly finding himself trapped in uncomfortable, compromising positions.

His best friend, Ine (Liv Lisa Fries) introduces him to the gay scene in Cologne where he meets the confident and gorgeous, Fabio (Max Befort). The two develop a romantic relationship that tests the boundaries of love.

Originally released in 2011, this critically-acclaimed debut feature from German writer-director Sabine Bernardi forgoes stereotypes and conventions to offer an honest and humorous examination of the most basic of human conditions: friendship, sex, and love.

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

New This Week – 5/28/21

Twin 18-year-olds hitchhike to their mother’s funeral in Spain. The journey changes their lives forever. ‘Give Me Your Hand’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Two men who have an unacknowledged relationship five years ago meet each other during the pandemic. Will they finally have a happy ending or a mother’s love get in the way to protect her son? Watch ‘Memories of Forgetting’ now on Dekkoo!

After drinking the California kool-aid, Ronnie decides to reinvent himself and move to LA. He soon discovers he has been forced down a path with no return. Stream the short film ‘You’ve Changed’ now on Dekkoo!

On one particular night, Jason drunkenly confesses his feelings to Daniel, irreparably changing their relationship forever. ‘Good Seeing You’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Two unmoored men in the chilly Chilean boondocks find warmth and solace in each other.

Take a trip through Queer Japan from the comfort of your own home

In this new documentary, trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to shine in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan.

From glossy pride parades to playfully perverse underground parties, Queer Japan pictures people living brazenly unconventional lives in the sunlight, the shadows, and everywhere in between.

Dazzling, iconoclastic drag queen Vivienne Sato peels back the layers of language and identity. Maverick manga artist Gengoroh Tagame tours the world with his unapologetically erotic gay comics. Councilwoman Aya Kamikawa recounts her rocky path to becoming the first transgender elected official in Japan. At the legendary kink-positive hentai party Department H, non-binary performance artist Saeborg uses rubber to create a second skin.

Culled from 100+ interviews conducted over three years in locations across the entire country, Queer Japan features dozens of individuals sharing their experiences in their own words. Get to know a vibrant and inspiring group of human beings in a country with a unique history of queer expression.

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

New This Week – 5/14/21

Lukas is a prisoner in his own body. As a pre-op transgendered person, he is constantly finding himself trapped in uncomfortable, compromising positions. His best friend, Ine introduces him to the gay scene in Cologne where he meets the confident and gorgeous, Fabio. ‘Romeos’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

When a happily married couple go on a routine staycation, the wife demonstrates that she knows her husband better than he knows himself. ‘More Than He Knows’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan. Stream ‘Queer Japan’ now on Dekkoo!

Leo had never imagined he would see his Dad kissing another man in the middle of a party – Until it happened. Now, with the help of Carol, his best friend, he has to find the most perfect way to tell his Dad that he found out about his secret. Watch ‘After That Party’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week – A prodigal son and a Syrian refugee are thrown together in the Finnish countryside in this spare, intense gay romance. – Variety

Short Film Spotlight: The Gust

Set in 2011, weeks after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, this provocative, sexy and deeply moving new thirty-minute short film follows a lonely middle-aged man finds himself obsessing with his squatter neighbor, a young closeted and tormented athlete who insistently pursues his attention.

A massive hit at film festivals all around the world, writer-director Edgar Garcia’s The Gust deals with fragility issues of living in a forgotten paradise, in the world’s oldest colony, still half-torn, half-supported, with half-citizens, half-gods and half-demons.

Check out a few stills from The Gust below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: My Dead Ones

The feature debut of director Diego Freitas, the new Brazilian thriller My Dead Ones follows a troubled young man as his mind slowly begins to unravel.

Davi (Nicolas Prattes) is a shy film school student who spends most of his life looking through a lens. When he meets Jonatas (Andre Hendges), an alluring man who brings the young voyeur out of his shell, their budding romance is threatened by a spate of gruesome murders that may be connected to Davi’s troubled and mysterious past.

When whispers of a killer lurking around campus sweep the school, Davi’s two worlds begin to collide and the truth rises ever more closely to the surface.

Watch the trailer for My Dead Ones below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

A family man self-destructs in the hard-hitting Irish drama Rialto

Colm (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) is in his mid-forties and married with two teenage children. Still grieving after the recent the death of his father, a destructive figure in his life, Colm finds himself struggling in his relationship to his own son.

To make matters worse, recent takeover at work has threatened his job. Unable to share his vulnerability with his wife, Colm’s world begins falling apart around him. In the midst of this crisis, he solicits sex from a young hustler named Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney).

This unexpected encounter – and his growing infatuation – has a deep effect on Colm. He finds a certain comfort in Jay that no one else can provide. When Jay shows up at Colm’s work demanding even more money and threatening to expose his secrets, Colm’s self-destructive fantasies get the better of him.

Directed by Peter Mackie Burns and based on a stage play by Mark O’Halloran, Rialto is a hard-hitting Irish drama about repressed sexuality and all of the ways it can disrupt a seemingly normal life.

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

A touching family bond is explored in the new documentary Madame

The touching new documentary Madame is a double portrait of a young boy slowly coming out of the closet and of the lady that was, even more than his own mother, the woman of his life – his grandmother.

Based on private archival footage, Madame takes us onto an intimate journey where Caroline, a flamboyant 90-year-old grandmother and her filmmaker grandson Stéphane explore the development and transmission of gender identity in a patriarchal environment.

Promised to a domestic life in the 1920s, Caroline manages to free herself from the clutches of a forced marriage and becomes a successful businesswoman, defying the social rules of her time.

In parallel, Stéphane struggles to play the role everyone expects in his Swiss bourgeois family, until the day he comes out of the closet and sets off on a crusade against homophobia and sexism.

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