The Call (UK) Amir a prospective university student struggling with their sexuality, calls switchboard for advice and connection at three crucial moments. With each phone call, we see Amir take steps on their own personal journey towards self-acceptance. It shows some of the vital work helpline volunteers undertake daily, but also explores contemporary themes surrounding LGBTQ+ culture unravelling truths about the community from a wide range of topics. This short film was made to raise awareness of Switchboard’s new 0800 number showing the breadth of support the charity offers. Regreso A Xanadu (Spain) [Return To Xanadu] A young man caught in the vortex of addiction and chemsex through fleeting encounters and endless nights. His friend Marcos seeks to intervene directly, confronting him with the reality of his actions and their consequences. Other friends choose to distance themselves, feeling unable to handle the weight of the situation. The guy goes to another night of chemise party ...
These kind of weird dystopian futuristic, low budget films are not my kind of cinema at all. An Austrian film, filmed in a mockumentary style, this is not really a gay themed film to be honest. So don't get fooled by the posters at all. By the end, I wasn't sure whether this film, is satire, comedy, drama, love story or what? It was a big ball of mud in my opinion.
Recently there have been a spat of assassination attempts. Jannis and his mute boyfriend Patrick are convinced that these are politically motivated. They decide to infiltrate a circus to shoot an undercover documentary exposing an underground political conspiracy. But when Patrick meets Mo, a young woman whose sensitivity to sunlight forces her to live by night, Jannis’ jealousy threatens the entire project. Now, the only way Patrick and Jannis can be certain to get the answers to their questions is to stick together until the bitter end.
The script of the film is very amateurish and all over the place. To top that, the performances are pretty bad. The whole way of presenting the film is very new, where you get a feel that the film is being edited while you are seeing it using software controls; but this just did not work for me. Everything else kind of falls apart around that premise. Part of that is the fault of the script, which has stilted dialogues and a cop-out of an ending and just gets lost in the weirdness of it all. After trying to stay focussed fo rover 30 minutes, I couldn't bear the torture anymore and was waiting for this atrocity to end.
Completely avoidable. (1.5/10)

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