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Franz Rogowski is magnificent in this moving drama which spans 25 years of German post-war queer history. He plays Hans, a gay man who refuses to compromise his life, despite the horrors of Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, which made homosexual acts between men a crime. The story slowly builds, moving between 1945, 1954 and 1969 (when the law was eased, although it was not repealed until 1994). The film opens with scenes of men cottaging in toilets, before we see Hans returned to a prison which he clearly knows well, weary but resigned to his fate, and soon in an obviously familiar solitary confinement cell. As the story moves between the decades, we see various of Hans’s lovers, both in and out of jail, but we also see his relationship with his first cell mate. Viktor (Georg ...

Caz Davis (Elz Carrad) returns to his New Zealand home town to reconcile with his past, his father and his friends. Since leaving the dairy community of Rūrangi ten years earlier, he has come out as transgender and is an activist in the city. But he hasn’t been in touch with his family or friends since leaving, so they don’t recognise him, and his father also needs to forgive Caz for missing his mother’s funeral. Caz also catches up with his best friend Anahera (Awahina Rose Ashby), who is reconnecting with her Māori heritage, and former boyfriend Jem (Arlo Green), who now finds himself reassessing his sexuality as he learns the truth about Caz. Adapted from a New Zealand web series, this moving and informative story is the epitome of why we need broader representation in the cinema....