The Male Gaze: Risk Appeal (2023)

Walk on Water

Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country, during which Axel challenges Eyal's values.

Paradise Now

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

All About My Mother

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

GAS

Six youngsters aged between 20 and 30 years old, stranded within the restricted values of a provincial city, constrained to live in an emotional void, lacking dreams and acknowledged values, brought together by their rage and feeling that they have nothing left to lose. Luca finds happiness with his ex-girlfriend's outgoing brother Riccardo. When a gay-bashing leaves Riccardo dead, Luca lures the perps to an abandoned factory basement, where he pretends to join in on their sadistic torture of a passerby before he turns the tables.

Confidences

Wedding invitations are about to be mailed when Casey abruptly calls off the wedding sending her fiancé, Clay, into a tailspin. Clay's best friend Reggie breaches the sanctity of their friendship to bring Clay face to face with what his 'business as usual' approach toward Casey has fostered and what he must do to correct it.

Bad Education

Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.

Brokeback Mountain

A sweeping epic that explores the lives of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection. The complications, joys and heartbreak they experience provide a testament to the endurance and power of love.

Nuovo Olimpo

In 1970s Rome, a casual encounter between Enea and Pietro at a movie theater turns into an unforgettable romance — until destiny pulls them apart.

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Fireflies

Ramin flees from persecution in Iran and ends up living in the limbo of exile, far from everything he knows, in the tropical port town of Veracruz, Mexico. There his nostalgia and melancholy are confronted with new friendships, while he starts to rediscover his own desires.

We Are Okay Now

A teenage boy is in love with his straight best friend, but a traumatic experience has changed the dynamics between them.

Where Are You Going, Habibi?

Ibrahim, a young German of Turkish descent, leads a double life, living with his tradition-bound family and spending his days looking for a respectable job. But outside his parent's apartment, Ibo (as he's called by his family and friends) is a confident gay man who works in a sex shop and is on the hunt for Mr. Right.

All Our Fears

Daniel is respected by his village community as long as he bravely supports the fight for their affairs. He is in love with the boy next door, Olek, who is not ready to reveal his sexual identity. Their relationship develops in secret. When a teenage friend can no longer take homophobic attacks and commits a suicide, Daniel tries to convince the villagers to organise a service of the Stations of the Cross together for the intention of the victim.

Sex Pistols

The premise of the story is that 30% of humans are not descended from apes but from other animals (these people are called "Zoomans"), and they can interbreed with humans, and with other male Zoomans by the use of a symbiote. Norio, an ordinary high school student discovers his Zoomanity and deals with the advances of many male Zoomans who want him to have their babies.

Maybe... Maybe Not

The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of living with gay men even though they are attracted to him and when his girlfriend wants him back he must make a tough decision.

Desert Hearts

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Everything Is Illuminated

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Summer Storm

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteor-logical.

Mala Noche

Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in taboo trysts and a tangled love triangle.

Matias and Jeronimo

Matías and Jerónimo know each other since they were just kids. Their friendship is a mix of fun and desire, but everything changes the night they go to the carnival and they see how a group of thugs beat a gay performer behind the scene.

Falling

In the winter of 1994 in the French suburbs, Léo and Baptiste, two polar opposite students, meet up one evening to work on a school presentation.

Inside the Mind

Oki fuses documentary elements with narrative filmmaking to such a point that it's difficult to distinguish one from the other. The film is both the story of two men falling in love with each other on a beach, and a faithful document to the filmmaking process. In the film within a film titled "Gay Couple Trying to Connect on the Beach", the documentary footage of director Hiroyuki Oki will be double and triple transcribed. The documentary film explores the relationship between the director and the world, as well as interviews with friends. Soon the director realizes that "kokoro" is not what is inside of him, but the feeling that arises when confronted with something.

The Bathhouse of Malatily

The film is an adaptation of the novel Samar Habib by Ismåeel Walieddin. author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations. The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, gets an apartment for his parents, and obtains a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a homosexual man.

My Child

What happens when your child comes out to you? In this feature documentary, parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender individuals in Turkey intimately share their experiences with the viewer, as they redefine what it means to be parents in this conservative society.

Blue Lights

Alejandro's 70th birthday unveils tensions and secrets within his gay/lesbian friend circle. Relationships evolve as truths about love, loss, and societal shifts emerge, exploring complexities that bind people together.

Torch Song Trilogy

Arnold is a gay man working as a drag queen in 1971 NYC. He meets a handsome bisexual man.

Mai

When a struggling single mother falls for a wealthy heartbreaker, their risky romance could just turn their lives around — or tear their worlds apart.

7 Kinds of Wrath

Petros is a gay archaeologist who experiences the naked Greek paranoia in the center of Athens. Either by choice or coincidence, he comes into contact with people who are "different": An Arab immigrant, who comes to Greece, a land of "infidels", determined to conquer it by any means; A Greek-French cello player, who is burdened by the agony of her alcoholic mother; A young Albanian pianist, who carries the curse of his own personal genius and divinity; A Greek immigrant, who was repatriated but now has nowhere to call home; A bank director, who believes everything can be bought, even love; A patrolman, who creates his own version of socio-political reality. Petros' contact with these people is in fact a traumatic experience. For each encounter he has to pay a price. Sometimes the price is material, while other times it's emotional. At times it is both. Will the experience gained make up for the loss?

Your Name Engraved Herein

In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.

Breakfast and Dinner

High school student Takumi lives with his two mothers in a beautiful house in Tokyo. Moving into a house across the street is Sora and her two fathers. One day Takumi and Sora begin a quest to seek answers long hidden and silent in their unconventional families. Takumi sets out to determine the identity of his father, and Sora devises a plan to integrate herself fully into her family. The ordeals of these households stretch the traditional notions of family, convention and tradition.

The Page Turner

Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.

Golden

A tale of being different and growing up.

Holiday Camp

At a meeting of the game "Truth or Dare?" two young boys, Matthew and Maximus, are challenging to embrace. The kiss will cause them some excitement. From that time, teens who witnessed this scene are allusions more or less directly to the possible homosexuality of Maxim. A revelation will then destabilize the group.

Going South

Gi-tae who is going to terminate his military service goes on a road trip with Jun-young by drugging him with a sleeping pill. They learn more about each other and come to terms with their sexuality.

Ponyboi

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.

Soldier's Girl

This true story, which takes place in Fort Campbell, KY, tells the heart-wrenching story of the life and tragic death of soldier Barry Winchell. His love for Calpernia Addams, a transgender nightclub performer, was misunderstood by his fellow soldiers and eventually led to his murder.

Kapaemahu

Long ago, four extraordinary beings of dual male and female spirit, led by Kapaemahu, brought certain healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii and were loved by the people for their gentle ways and the miraculous cures they performed.

The Cage

After being framed in a murder, Nick returns to his troubled hometown Exalon, where he begins an affair with a young man working at a family restaurant.

My 13

Jonathan is in love with Julie, the most beautiful girl of his school... However, Julie doesn't even know him. He becomes friend with Charles, Julie's brother. One day, he sneaks in Julie's room to steal her diary. Back home, he finds in the diary a drawn heart, with the quote "I love Jonathan"... Back to his new friend Charles' home, he realizes that the diary belongs to Charles, himself...

Message Sent

Message Sent is the story of Michael Collins, a teenager struggling to find himself. Michael lives what most would call a perfect life. He has perfect friends, an amazing girlfriend, and a future. But he also has a secret. A secret that has been eating away at him for years.