Category: International Film

The gay boxing drama ‘Punch’ tells a hard-hitting story about love, loyalty and liberation

Up-and-coming New Zealand actor Jordan Oosterhof stars in the gay sports drama Punch as Jim, a seventeen-year-old boxer from a small town. Something of a golden boy, Jim is preparing for a fight that will elevate him to an early professional status.

All bets are on his climb to success. But his father, Stan, a demanding coach and a notorious alcoholic played by Tim Roth, is treated like a joke. He has given everything to see his son gain professional status and escape the brutality of his small world.

As Jim begins to rethink why he is fighting in the first place, his life tangles with Whetu, a razor-tongued, gay Maori boy played by Conan Hayes, who spends his days in an old shack down by the beach.

Along with his dog, Whetu cobbles together a fragile glamour and dreams of leaving town to become a musician. As Jim stumbles towards discovering what it really means to be a gay man, he is forced to see that strength has little to do with heroism.

Gorgeously crafted, powerfully acted and deeply romantic, Punch tells a hard-hitting story about love, loyalty and liberation.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Yet Another Family Drama

Yet Another Family Drama, a darkly emotional 20-minute short from Bulgarian writer-director Diana Petrova, follows a mother and son who begin hashing out their relationship conflicts at an extremely inopportune time.

Georgi (Delyan Iliev), drunk and naked, is in the middle of a tryst with a hot, young one-night-stand (Plamen Kanev) when his estranged mother (Stanka Kalcheva) drops by his apartment to crash the party and deliver some shocking news.

Though he’s hidden his sexuality from her in the past, Georgi is in no mood to walk on eggshells. The two begin to hash out their grievances, despite the presence of Georgi’s lover, until their argument reaches an operatic crescendo.

Using surreal imagery to convey the tense dance between this dysfunctional mother and son, Yet Another Family Drama goes far beyond the simple premise laid out by the title.

Check out the poster for Yet Another Family Drama below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Shiba San and Meow Chan

Shiba San and Meow Chan, a 30-minute Taiwanese short film from director Chung-Chieh Chiang, revolves around two brothers, both stars of a hit children’s show – in which they perform as a dog and a cat, respectively.

Their show, having swept through the nation capturing the eyes and hearts of kids, has brought them great fame and media attention. Though radiant on stage, both actors have something else on their minds.

Shiba San has been secretly in love with a married man while Meow Chan misses his remarried mother and finds himself desperately searching for reasons why she left him.

Their journey will lead the two stray siblings to confront their emptiness that comes with very public success.

Mixing cuteness and melancholy, Shiba San and Meow Chan is a touching story of two brothers coming of age under intense scrutiny.

Watch the trailer for Shiba San and Meow Chan below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Born for You’ tells the incredibly moving true story of Italy’s first adoptive gay parent

From Italian director Fabio Mollo, Born for You tells the beautiful and touching true story of Luca (Pierluigi Gigante), a gay, single, Catholic man who, in 2017, adopted Alba, a child with Down syndrome who had been left in hospital shortly after being born.

Thirty heterosexual families rejected her before the court decided to entrust her to Luca. With this new precedent set, the legal foster care register for single gay men was inaugurated in Italy.

Luca may have been the first single gay parent in Italy to successfully adopt a daughter, but this was not a charitable gesture or a fight against the system… he simply wanted to start a family.

Beautifully shot and powerfully acted, the film weaves between Luca’s present-day struggles and flashbacks to his youth, creating a deeply intimate portrait of love, loss and the fight for equality and acceptance.

Born for You is a profound reflection on the transformative and triumphant power of love and the potential of LGBTQ+ families everywhere.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Under the Crescent Moon

From the outset of Under the Crescent Moon, it’s clear that there is something going on between high school besties Abdul and Jerryl.

Constantly flirting and finding excuses to playfully touch one another, the two young men are inching ever closer to finally admitting their true feelings.

The problem lies in the societal and religious expectations that surround them. Abdul, who comes from a conservative Muslim family, feels deeply that his love for Jerryl is a direct affront to Allah – and his strict father, who has taken ominous notice of the boys’ affection, would likely agree.

An emotional 15-minute short film from the Philippines, Under the Crescent Moon tells a tender and ultimately heartbreaking coming-of-age story about young love.

Watch a quick trailer for Under the Crescent Moon below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Brace yourself for Pierre Creton’s acclaimed, sexually-charged fever dream drama ‘A Prince’

In the blissful and forbidding French countryside, an enveloping, cross-generational saga unfolds between an attractive young gardening apprentice and the three much older men who are training him – all of whom become instrumental in his professional tutelage as well as his sexual coming-of-age.

Inspired by memories of his own teenage years, outsider artist and real-life farmer Pierre Creton isn’t afraid to confront taboos while crafting this truly unusual, austere gay drama.

Unfolding at a deliberately slow pace, A Prince fuses together science, sensuality and meditation – culminating in the most sexually-charged film about horticulture you’re ever likely to see.

Winner of the Best French-Language Film Prize in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, A Prince offers up a singular vision of a quietly eroticized natural world. Placing it at number two on his list of the Best Films of 2023, John Waters called it “slow, spooky and poetically fucked up – in other words, perfect.”

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

Two dancers find their relationship threatened by ambition in the sensual drama ‘Dying Briefly’

Dying Briefly follows young performer Sebastian (Martín Saracho) who, shortly after joining an esteemed dance company, meets Arsenio (Joan Kuri), a charming and more experienced fellow dancer.

The two men quickly fall for one another, beginning an intense affair and soon becoming a couple.

When a manipulative new choreographer arrives with methods that begin to shake up the established group dynamics, the pair find themselves in crisis.

Now they must compete with one another for the same role while trying to stay true to themselves and their affection for one another. Will their relationship, and the troupe as a whole, survive the competition?

Like a gay male version of Black Swan, Dying Briefly is a captivating and thought-provoking romantic dance drama, exploring complicated issues of body image, bullying, and self harm with sexy and talented lead actors and impressive choreography that will sweep you off your feet.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Eclipse of a Relationship

Three lead actors bare it all in Eclipse of a Relationship, a sexually-charged 9-minute short (originally titled Eclissi di un rapporto) from Italian writer-director Nino Zeno.

Unfolding largely without dialog, the film follows two men in a difficult relationship. The older, more dominant of the two has invited a third man to join them in the bedroom. Though it certainly spices things up, it also accelerates the inevitable decline of their feelings for one another.

Incredibly sensual and packed with both naked bodies and naked feelings, this poetic, deliberately ambiguous film takes on an eerily voyeuristic quality as the audience is invited to witness incredibly intimate events that no one was ever meant to see.

Watch the trailer for Eclipse of a Relationship below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.