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Tag: film

Film recommendation: Sócrates
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Film recommendation: Sócrates

This moving film tells the story of a gay black teenager in Brazil, facing homelessness and discrimination for his sexuality after his mother’s sudden death. Alexandre Moratto’s film opens with 15-year-old Sócrates trying to waken his mother, but she is dead. They had been living on the margins of society in São Paulo, and now the teenager must try to make ends meet without being returned to his father or placed in a foster home. He tries to look after himself, turning up to do his mother’s cleaning job and claiming she is ill. But when the truth emerges, he has to leave – he is underage and nobody can employ him. He finds work in a junkyard but gets into a fight with co-worker Maicon who accuses him of trying too hard. But this inauspicious start leads to a developing relationship. ...
Film recommendation: Disobedience
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Film recommendation: Disobedience

Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams give superb performances in this powerful love story set in London’s Orthodox Jewish community. In this rich and impressive drama, adapted from Naomi Alderman’s 2006 novel of the same name, bohemian photographer Ronit (Rachel Weisz) returns home to north London when her rabbi father dies. She is now an outsider from the Orthodox Jewish community, having left London years earlier for New York and there is uncertainty about her return. But her old friends Esti and Dovid (Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola), who have stayed in their community and are now married, welcome her. As Ronit and Esti’s passionate feelings from their youth start to resurface, so do the suspicions of their conservative community. This is a tender love story, beautifully played, ...
Film recommendation: Saint Frances
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Film recommendation: Saint Frances

A small but special film that examines so much of what goes to make up human – particularly female – life shown with warmth and some great taboo-busting. You wait, well, all your life for a film or TV show that mentions period sex and then, guess what, two come along at once. First, Michaela Coel’s searing television series I May Destroy You literally examines a blood clot, then Saint Frances shows us a bed and, yes, faces covered in blood. People who menstruate (yes, I will say that, JKR, because it is valid), we are seen and the taboos are being busted. But Saint Frances is about much, much more than this – it is just an early indicator that this is a film that is real, messy (literally and metaphorically) and will show its characters with their charms and flaws, their reality – an...
Film recommendation: Disclosure
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Film recommendation: Disclosure

A timely, important, and hugely engaging documentary, in which trans creatives chart and analyse the representation of trans lives on our screens. When this documentary was announced in February as the centrepiece of the 2020 BFI Flare Film Festival (London’s LGBTQ+ fest), it felt timely. When that festival was cancelled due to Covid-19 and the film was only briefly on BFI Player, it felt like a loss. But now it appears on Netflix and is, sadly, even more timely – after JK Rowling saw fit to air her views about the trans community on her huge platform, both the US and UK governments sought to roll back trans rights, the Black Lives Matter protests have taken centre stage and we have witnessed the abuse received by model Munroe Bergdorf from a member of the UK House of Lords. But as w...
Film Recommendation: Appropriate Behaviour
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Film Recommendation: Appropriate Behaviour

Enjoy Appropriate Behaviour, Desiree Akhavan's endearingly frank, bittersweet self-portrait of life as a bi-sexual Iranian-American Brooklynite. Rewatching Appropriate Behaviour reminded me how rarely we see scrappy, imperfect – ie real – women on screen. And how refreshing it is to see them when one is, or knows, imperfect women (ie all of us!). Let alone bisexual women, who get little exposure in films, and a non-white bisexual woman at that. Akhavan herself plays Shirin, an American-Iranian bisexual woman in her 20s, who is not yet out to her parents. At the start of the film she is just breaking up from her girlfriend and the film flits around its timeline in the same messy way that its protagonist’s mind is processing complicated emotions. Shirin is trying to deal with the end of ...
Film recommendation: And Then We Danced
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Film recommendation: And Then We Danced

And Then We Danced is a gorgeous film set in the world of Georgian folk dancer and looks at love and desire, tradition and innovation, exploring aspects of masculinity. Young male dancer Merab has been training since an early age at the National Georgian Ensemble with his dance partner Mary. His aim is to join the main ensemble which will settle his career as well as giving him opportunities to travel abroad. But his world changes when the charismatic and carefree Irakli arrives, becoming both his strongest rival and his forbidden desire. Levan Gelbakhiani, a dancer who had not acted professionally before, gives a wonderful, open-hearted performance as Merab. He holds our gaze, with his beauty and talent but also with his open-hearted portrayal of a character who is bound to his homelan...
God’s Own Country censored on Prime Video
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God’s Own Country censored on Prime Video

I thought it was a joke, but I was wrong. We had spoken about this beautiful movie and the touching story of the two characters in this post, and invited you to watch it on Prime Video by Amazon, but apparently, in the USA the streaming service has thought that some scenes had to be censored. https://twitter.com/strawhousefilms/status/1262924087766200321 Some twitter users reported that two important sex scenes had been cut from the streaming version of God's Own Country in the US, scenes that were not removed from the version that can be purchased on the same streaming service. https://twitter.com/JoshFromIndy/status/1262938810930757632 Apparently, Prime Video hasn't replied yet to explain the reasons behind this, but we are sure the answer won't be too late. You can read ...
Watch the film – and Q&A – God’s Own Country
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Watch the film – and Q&A – God’s Own Country

It’s time for a watch – or rewatch – of 2017’s God’s Own Country – ready for an online Q&A on Sunday 17 May. If you haven’t yet seen 2017’s God’s Own Country, you really, really should; if you have – you will know exactly what I mean. Either way, now is the time for a watch or rewatch, as director Francis Lee and the two lead actors Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu are going to be chatting and answering questions live on Picturehouse Facebook and Youtube on Sunday 17 May, 8pm BST. The film is a wonderfully performed and impressively unsentimental story of love and longing in England’s Yorkshire hills. Young sheep farmer Johnny numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of Romanian migrant worker Gheorghe for lambing season ignites an intens...
Film recommendation – Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu)
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Film recommendation – Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu)

Watch this stunning French lesbian period drama. This ravishing story of female passion and desire set in 18th-century France is a beautiful masterpiece about love, creativity and the power of just looking. Or, as director Céline Sciamma says, it is about the ‘gaze’ (or is that the – female – gays?). It is a sumptuous love story set in 18th-century France. Artist Marianne must secretly paint the portrait of countess’s daughter Héloïse in the hope it will find her a wealthy husband, although Héloïse doesn’t want to be married – or painted. Nevertheless, a burgeoning attraction between artist and subject develops. Exploring women’s roles in society within a historical context, Sciamma has crafted a poignant, exquisite portrait of female desire and solidarity. Portrait of a Lady on Fir...
Film recommendation – Nina’s Heavenly Delights
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Film recommendation – Nina’s Heavenly Delights

This is a fun, low-budget film set in the Indian community of Glasgow. It’s a feast of romance, family dynamics and glorious curries with queer representation ahead of its times. It’s not going to become one of your classics, but it makes for a fun night in, and is available to rent on Vimeo. Nina returns home for her father’s funeral, having fled Glasgow to escape an arranged marriage. She mourns her father, an award-winning chef who taught her everything she knows about cooking curries. She decides to try to save her father’s restaurant and win The Best of the West Curry Competition in his honour. But to do so, she must work with Lisa, who co-owns the restaurant. As they practise their dishes, a friendship develops between them and romantic sparks fly. But can Nina let herself go, ...
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