THE MALE GAZE: BREAKING DAWN - Short Film Collection
- Ben Turner
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
Breaking Dawn is the new instalment in NQV Media’s short film collection The Male Gaze continuing their anthology of gay shorts from around the world. This collection has gathered five diverse films from; France, Brazil, Romania and Switzerland. Take a look at each of them below.
RED LOVE (France)
Starring: Gabriel Acremant, Boris Sztulman, Baptiste Roussillon
Director: Laura Garcia
Gaël is madly in love with Victor but since he was left for a woman, he’s become wildly desperate to win him back. Turning up at his house in the middle of the night, he hammers at his door, making a last-ditch attempt to win back his love. A visceral depiction of desperation, this is a character portrait of a broken man at rock bottom that is emotionally raw, brutal to watch and ends in a very dark place. With daring performances and unflinching realism, this is an uncomfortable and painfully sad short film.
FLUSH (Brazil)
Starring: Nicolas Prattes, João Côrtes
Director: Diego Freitas
Two students get locked in a college bathroom overnight. One is an angry young man, hyper-masculine and politically motivated, while the other is a calm and nurturing trans woman trying to live life undisturbed. Polar opposites from each other, their night together on the cold tiles leads them to find an unexpected connection as they wait for the door to be unlocked. Although maybe all is not as it seems. A tender drama about finding humanity within oneself, this is a thoughtful and nuanced short.
THE NIGHT PRACTICE (Romania)
Starring: Andrei Giurgea, Tiberius Zavelea, Gabriel Spahiu
Director: Bogdan Alecsandru
Cristea is the new goalkeeper at a junior football team. Most of the team is hostile toward him, apart from Robert, but this strange young man appears to develop an obsession with him, which is made all the more intimidating by his apparent lust for human blood. A coming of age film that toes the line with something much darker, this is Let The Right One In on a football pitch. Tense, eerie and atmospheric, this is a brilliant piece of filmmaking that finds the spot where romance and horror perfectly intersect. Played out against the austere backdrop of a hard and cruel football team, this is tender and violent in equal measure.
THE BLUE SHELTER (France)
Starring: Paul Lemarchand, Anouar Kardellas, Olivier Normand, Angèle Blanc, Lila Robert
Director: Jérémy Piette
Arthur and his friends are at the beach. As he confesses his secret love for his friend Nassim, he finds himself drawn to a mysterious stranger sunning himself on the rocks. As the sun goes down, he is welcomed beneath the waves to a fantastical world of merpeople. A magical allegory for the final summer of childhood, this is an iridescent and haunting take on finally growing up, shot with long atmospheric takes that allow us to explore the realisation of Arthur’s psyche.
WAKING UP IN VEGAS (Switzerland)
Starring: Ayhan Eranil, Finnigan Inan, Fritz Rudolph
Director: Michèle Flury
Yael is a young teenager trying to work out his own identity. He is strongly influenced by the machismo of his older brother but also by his queer best friend’s liberalism. He dreams of stardom on the football pitch, but he hasn’t yet worked out what that means for the rest of his life. A touching short about young friendship, this is unusual in focusing the crisis of identity not with the gay child but with the straight one. Tender, sweet and subtle, this is the kind of filmmaking that captures the kids’ age so very adeptly, with their interactions feeling authentic and completely unstaged.
Breaking Dawn is an empowering compilation about young men facing their moments of awakening. While all are strong shorts, it is The Night Practice that is the collection’s strongest, though Red Love definitely deserves a commendation too.
UK Release: Out to watch on VOD on June 9th, released by NQV Media.
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