Queer Wave 2021
Feature Films
QueerWave Festival Programme 2021.
The Cyprus LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN
Radu Jude
106’ | 2021 | Romania
Emi finds her teaching career under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure.
CARMEN & LOLA
Arantxa Echevarría
103’ | 2018 | Spain
Two young women come into conflict with the conservatism and patriarchalism of Madrid’s Roma community when they fall in love.
COLORS OF TOBI
Alexa Bakony
81’ | 2021 | Hungary
A documentary providing an intimate glimpse into the family life of a young person exploring their gender identity in rural Hungary.
DATING AMBER
David Freyne
92’ | 2020 | Ireland, UK, US, Belgium
In 1990s Ireland, two school friends decide to start a pretend straight relationship in an effort to fit in.
IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE, BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES
Rosa von Praunheim
67’ | 1971 | West Germany
A sociological essay film about gay life in Berlin in a time of secrecy and oppression, following Daniel’s unsatisfying immersion into gay society.
LITTLE GIRL
Sébastien Lifshitz
90’ | 2020 | France, Denmark
A trans girl grows into herself in a lovely, light-filled documentary that pitches familial strength against community resistance.
LOVE, SPELLS AND ALL THAT
Ümit Ünal
96’ | 2019 | Turkey
After not having seen each other for 20 years, two women are reunited on the small Turkish island where, as teenagers, they first fell in love.
MOFFIE
Oliver Hermanus
104’ | 2019 | South Africa, UK
A young man in 1981 South Africa must complete his brutal and racist two years of compulsory military service while desperately maintaining the secrecy of his homosexuality.
MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM
Leontine Sagan
88’ | 1931 | Germany
At an all-girls boarding school, Manuela develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers. One of the earliest narrative films in the history of cinema to explicitly portray homosexuality.
OBSCURO BARROCO
Evangelia Kranioti
59’ | 2018 | France, Greece
An essayistic film exploring the pulsating world and poetic words of transgender narrator Luana Muniz, an icon of Brazil’s queer subculture.
SHIVA BABY
Emma Seligman
77’ | 2020 | USA, Canada
A young woman struggles to keep up different versions of herself when she runs into her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend at a shiva with her parents.
THE COMING BACK OUT BALL MOVIE
Sue Thomson
86’ | 2018 | Australia
In the middle of Australia’s divisive marriage equality vote, Melbourne hosted a gala event to honour and celebrate its LGBTIQ elders. These are their stories.
THE STRONG ONES
Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo
98’ | 2019 | Chile
Lucas travels to visit his sister in a remote city in southern Chile. There he falls in love with Antonio, a foreman on a local fishing boat.
THE WILD BOYS
Bertrand Mandico
110’ | 2017 | France
Five teenagers enamoured by the arts commit a savage crime. As punishment, a Dutch captain takes them to a supernatural island with luxuriant vegetation and bewitching powers.
TOVE
Zaida Bergroth
103’ | 2020 | Finland, Sweden
A biopic on the formative years of Tove Jansson, showing both her personal relationships, and the creation of the popular Moomin books.
Short Films
QueerWave Festival Programme 2021.
The Cyprus LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
A Normal Girl
Aubree Bernier-Clarke
14′ | 2019 | USA
Bringing the widely unknown struggles of intersex people to light through the story of intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis.
A or B
Andreas Pavlou
5’ | 2021 | Cyprus
If your whole life depended on one answer, you would probably think twice: do you pick up the intercom and define your life?
Anemone
Amrou Al-Kadhi
18′ | 2018 | UK
A second-generation teen searches for a way to express their non-binary identity.
Dans La Natura (In Nature)
Marcel Barelli
5’ | 2021 | Switzerland
In nature, a couple is a male and a female. Well, not always! A couple is also a female and a female. Or a male and a male. You may not know it, but homosexuality isn’t just a human story.
Downhill
Stelios Kammitsis
14′ | 2015 | Cyprus
The story of a mother trying to come to terms with the admission of her son’s sexuality in an island community that is taking the first step toward the recognition of same-sex relationships.
Dustin
Naïla Guiguet
20′ | 2020 | France
Dustin follows the events of DJ Dustin over the course of one wild night at a warehouse party and the morning that follows.
Escaping the Fragile Planet
Thanasis Tsimpinis
17′ | 2020 | Greece
A few hours before the world ends, two men have an unexpected encounter, while a strange pink fog is spreading throughout the city.
Globus Sensation
Dimitris Chimonas
7’ | 2021 | Cyprus
Globus sensation is the sensation of having a lump in the throat without anything actually being present. It’s a real biological activity that an actor could not fake when crying. But as the commitment to fantasy intensifies, reality is overshadowed by the pleasures of indulgence.
Half a Life
Tamara Shogaolu
13′ | 2017 | Egypt, Indonesia, USA, Netherlands
After a traumatic encounter, a young, gay Egyptian joins the LGBT rights movement. When his safety is jeopardized, he must choose whether to stay in the country he loves or seek asylum elsewhere as a refugee.
Hot Tea
Marcel Tigchelaar
3′ | 2017 | Netherlands
A cup of tea never tasted so good.
IT IS NOT THE BRAZILIANS HOMOSEXUALS WHO ARE PERVERSE BUT THE SITUATION IN WHICH THEY LIVE
Leandro Goddinho, Paulo Menezes, Eduardo Mamede
12’ | 2021 | Brazil
Two queer Brazilians go skinny dipping in a lake, where they talk about love, sex, colonialism and migration, on a pandemic summer afternoon in Berlin.
International Dawn Chorus Day
John Greyson
15′ | 2021 | Canada
On International Dawn Chorus Day (May 3, 2020), birds from six continents join an online video call.
Islands
Yann Gonzalez
23’ | 2017 | France
In Islands, characters wander through an erotic maze of love and desire.
It’s just in my head
Marius Gabriel Stancu
17′ | 2020 | Italy
Andreas and Alessandro have been friends since their childhood. Every year, they spend their summer together at their hometown by the seaside.
J’Ador
Simone Bozzelli
16′ | 2020 | Italy
If Claudio truly wants to fit in, he must lose his boy scent and learn how to smell like a man.
Ladies Day
Abena Taylor-Smith
9′ | 2018 | UK
A young, black lesbian spends the day in an Afro-Caribbean hair salon. It’s full of fun, sheen spray, gossip and laughter, but how will she deal with the casual homophobia?
Landline
Matt Houghton
12′ | 2018 | UK
Through a series of recorded telephone conversations and reconstructive visuals, Landline uses the UK’s only helpline for gay farmers as a lens through which to view the experiences of LGBTQ people in the British farming community.
Let My Body Speak
Madonna Adib
10′ | 2020 | UK
Our bodies store memories. The body does not forget. A childhood in Damascus, OCD, the revolution, falling in love with a woman. My body remembers, it keeps the trauma. And after all the losses, I had to start listening to my body.
Mani
Ashkan Mehri
16′ | 2020 | Iran
A 12-year-old boy is coming to terms with his burgeoning puberty and sexuality, while navigating a series of male-dominated environments in contemporary Tehran.
Marco
Saleem Haddad
22′ | 2019 | UK
When a banker invites a sex worker to his London apartment, he finds himself coming face to face with both his own past, and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
Nightender
Flávio Gonçalves
28’ | 2020 | Portugal
A restless young man with his head in the clouds finishes another shift behind the counter of a cruising bar. He takes the longest path on his way back home.
Private Photos
Marcelo Grabowsky
20’ | 2020 | Portugal
A sweet couple invite a third person over for the night, who brings a lustful energy to spice things up.
Ten Times Love
Manuel Billi, Benjamin Bodi
15’ | 2020 | France
Ten fragments of ephemeral love in the life of Numa, an anti-romantic hero of our liquid time.
Thank You For Dancing
Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken
19′ | 2016 | Norway
A lifelong relationship is coming to an end, as we follow two elderly men and former athletes the last winter they spend together.
The Call
Marios Psaras
10′ | 2020 | Cyprus
A transgender woman receives a call from her brother letting her know that their mother had passed.
The Fans
Seva Galkin
26′ | 2020 | Russia
In Moscow, two skinheads kill homosexual men while being in a sexual relationship with one another. Based on a true story, the film inquires about masculinity, identity, and a sense of belonging in contemporary Russia.
The Hunt
Sholeh Zahraei, Kamil Saldun
21′ | 2020 | Cyprus
The sudden discovery of his son’s secret turns Ibrahim’s traditional world upside down. Fraught with emotional conflict he takes Ismail on a fateful trip. Inspired by the biblical story of Prophet Abraham, father of all patriarchs, and his son Ismail set in present-day Cyprus, unraveling the conservative facade of the society.
Trans Happiness Is Real
Quinton Baker
8′ | 2020 | UK
A trans activist chronicles their street art activism, which combats anti-trans stickering campaign on the streets of Oxford with unwavering but not untested hope.
Victoria
Daniel Toledo Saura
8’ | 2020 | Spain
This is the story of a first meeting and, at the same time, of a reunion. It’s the story of the moment when Ana sees Clara for the first time.