Category: International Film

A romantic encounter changes the life of a drag artist in the drama Your Eyes on Me

From writer-director Sergei Alexander, the British drama Your Eyes on Me tells the story of an experienced drag queen named Gloria (Paul Stone) whose life starts to change when she meets Kandi (Jean-Philippe Boriau) a younger drag-virgin who is auditioning for her next show.

As a bond begins to develop between Gloria and Kandi, their relationship takes an unexpected turn. Suddenly, the past, and the choices Gloria made as a young man, become a stark reality.

A Russian-born filmmaker who arrived in London in 2004, Alexander makes his feature-length debut with Your Eyes on Me. The film won major awards and acclaim at the 2020 London Independent Film Festival.

“Your Eyes on Me is a story of love, family, friendship and sexuality, one which can be read and interpreted on many different levels and through many different lenses,” said Alexander. “I hope that film will bring viewers on a thought-provoking and emotional journey, eliciting questions around their beliefs of love, self-acceptance and self-identity.”

Watch the trailer for Your Eyes on Me below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Scaffolding

A director, producer, photographer and musician, Spanish artist Juanma Carrillo is a jack of all trades. He has been working in the audiovisual world since 2000, moving between avant-garde films and video art.

His short movies and video creations have been screened at film festivals all around the world and in cultural centers such as the Andalusia Film Library, the New York Queens Museum, the London Barbican Center and La Casa Encendida in Madrid.

Out of all of Carrillo’s varied works, his 2012 short film Scaffolding is easily one of the most acclaimed. A touching slow-burn meet-cute, the 14-minute film focuses on the tentative flirtation that builds between two next door neighbors.

Scaffolding follows Eduardo (Domingo Fernández), a somewhat snobby and generally grumpy journalist, and David (Paco Blázquez), a shy and sensitive young literature student. The two men are neighbors in a building under maintenance. Their tiny balconies are side-by-side, which affords each of them little privacy. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing? For six months they have never greeted each other… until the appearance of a scaffold which will uncover unexpected reactions in each one.

A heartwarming hit on the LGBTQ+ film festival circuit when it first debuted, Scaffolding is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 3/5/21

Mario, a young dancer living in his small village has to face the loss of his beloved friend Lenz, victim of an attack in a gay club. ‘Why Not You’ is streaming exclusively on Dekkoo!

A young gay man finds how to love himself and accept love from another, despite the disapproval of his father. Watch ‘More Than Only’ now on Dekkoo!

An openly gay teacher must choose a course of action when his sister asks him to step back into the closet for her wedding in Turkey. ‘Involuntary Activist’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A story of love, greed – and moisturizer.

Now Available: 7 Minutes

Written and directed by prolific short filmmaker Ricky Mastro, the hard-hitting drama 7 Minutes takes place in Toulouse and tells the story of Jean (accomplished French actor Antoine Herbez), a 55-year-old policeman who discovers his son, Maxime (Valentin Malguy), and his son’s boyfriend, Kevin (Paul Arvenne) hanged in a hotel room.

The autopsy shows that Maxime died from an overdose of GHB, just seven minutes after his boyfriend. During an evening organized by Maxime’s friends, Jean discovers the club BISOU, where his son used to go. There, he meets Fabien (Clément Naline).

Trying to know more about what happened to Maxime and Kevin, Jean goes to the club several times over and is quickly welcomed by the regulars, the Bisouers. But when Fabien becomes unusually attached to him, Jean starts mixing his mourning with a strong, possibly dangerous desire to discover more about his son’s world.

Watch the trailer for 7 Minutes below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 2/26/21

17-year-old Jakob wants nothing more than to feel alive. Uncontrollable anxiety attacks prevent him from doing so and force him to escape into virtual worlds. One night, he meets 26-year-old Kristjan in a cam chat. Their encounter marks the beginning of a transpersonal journey to the wounds of their souls. ‘Nevrland’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Two high school sweethearts, Luke and Jonah, spend their final months together over the course of a long, quiet summer in the rural South–a world of baseball, bicycles, church and green bean casserole–contemplating their uncertain future and the uncertain future of America. Stream ‘Last Summer’ now on Dekkoo!

Eduardo, a snob publicist who lives cranky most of the day and David, a shy student of literature are neighbors in a building under construction. After six months of hardly a greeting a scaffold intercedes between them causing unexpected reactions in each. ‘Scaffolding’ is streaming now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A young dancer living in his small village has to face the loss of his beloved friend, the victim of an attack in a gay club.

Short Film Spotlight: Bror

Written and directed by prolific short filmmaker Isabella Carbonell, the fourteen-minute short film Bror (“Brother”) takes place on the soccer field, following two longtime buddies as they cagily broach the subject of taking their friendship to the next level.

Nico (Philip Oros) and Khalid (Poyan Karimi) are best friends – and always have been. Khalid was born in Iran, a country where having feelings for another man can lead to the death penalty. Nico was born in Sweden, a country where it’s openly accepted for a man to have a boyfriend. And yet it’s Nico who keeps holding back when Khalid tries to take their relationship further than it’s gone before.

Well-received on the international film festival circuit, Bror has also been used as an educational film at schools in Germany. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

The relationship between a biographer and his subject spirals into abuse and dependence in the tense Australian drama Acute Misfortune

Erik Jensen was an ambitious nineteen-year-old journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald when Archibald Prize-Winning painter, Adam Cullen, with a career retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW, invited him to write his biography. The new film Acute Misfortune follows of the four-and-a-half years leading to Cullen’s death at the age of forty-six. It is the story of their increasingly claustrophobic relationship.

Based on the award-winning biography Cullen, the Jensen did eventually publish, co-writer-director Thomas M. Wright’s film is about biographer and subject, an iconic artist and lauded author, theft and the commerce of theft, the instability of lies and of coming through an abusive relationship to find meaning in its wake.

These true events, told using almost entirely real dialogue are brought to life by award-winning actors Daniel Henshall (The Snowtown Murders, The Babadook), and Toby Wallace (Romper Stomper, The Turning). Acute Misfortune marks the feature-length debut of Wright, an actor known for Sweet Country and Top of the Lake.

Meticulously researched, the film that was named one of the best films of the year in The Monthly Awards in Australia and by Screen Daily. It also received The Age Critics Prize at Melbourne International Film Festival.

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

New This Week – 2/19/21

Though he’s always considered himself straight, Daniel begins to develop feelings for his alluring new co-worker Javier. Once he admits to his bisexuality, he enters a new world of potential partners. All the while, however, he’s looking to work up the courage to tell Javier how he really feels. Don’t miss this sexy new 8-episode romantic comedy series. ‘Everything I Like’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

A drag queen named Gloria’s life changes dramatically when she meets Kandi, a drag virgin auditioning for her next show. As the bond develops between the two, their relationship takes an unexpected turn. Stream ‘Your Eyes On Me’ now on Dekkoo!

Darío, a 17-year-old boy in Barranquilla, Colombia, is a talented dancer whose mother’s disapproval stands in his way of performing at the upcoming carnival. ‘Dario’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A psychological coming-of-age film about the courage it takes to be oneself and the daunting fear blocking the way.

New This Week – 2/12/21

Reeling after the sudden death of his son, a middle-aged police officer begins to immerse himself in the local gay club scene – looking for a way to discover more about his son’s private life. What begins as part of the grieving process takes a different turn when he begins forming an intense relationship with a much younger man. ‘7 Minutes’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

For over 40 years, it was considered the “Largest Gay Mass Murder in U.S. History”. On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the Upstairs Lounge, ultimately killing 32 people. With interviews from survivors, family/friends of victims and witnesses, ‘Upstairs Inferno’ vividly examines this oft-forgotten story and captures the power of unconditional love. Watch ‘Upstairs Inferno’ now on Dekkoo.

In the short film ‘Amateur Dramatics, two competing actors find truth in pretending. Stream ‘Amateur Dramatics’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A thoroughly modern, light-filled look at romance and sexuality.

An unexpected love triangle develops in the romantic drama You and I

It’s summertime in Berlin. Jonas (Eric Klotzsch) is planning a trip through the little known area of the Uckermark, in preparation for a photography project. He invites his best friend, Phillip (George Taylor), to come along.

The two men haven’t seen one another since the time they spent together in London. So they pack up their Mercedes camper and take off across uncharted territory, stopping whenever they see something they like, taking pictures and generally enjoying a laid-back road trip.

The fact that Phillip is gay has never been an issue for either of them. When they pick up a hitchhiker named Boris (Michal Grabowski), however, who shows Jonas some interesting spots and starts to make moves on Phillip, the friendship of the two starts to fray. Maybe three’s a crowd after all? By the end of the summer, things between Jonas and Phillip won’t ever be the same again.

A sexy and bittersweet romantic drama, writer-director Nils Bökamp’s You and I is a stimulating, visually arresting romantic drama that tells a simple coming-of-age story, but packs in a lot of universal emotion.

Watch the trailer for You and I below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.