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Flare · 2025

Flare 2025

Bodies

Programme

15 films · 4 reviews

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A Body To Live In

Describing his gender as ‘between the cracks’, Fakir Musafar (1930-2018) quested for enlightenment through transformative gender play and extreme piercing. Coining the term ‘Modern Primitives’ in 1979, he merged sexuality with spirituality via a controversial grab-bag of physically gruelling ceremonial practices from religions around the globe. This documentary tells his story.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Angelo Madsen; Writer: Angelo Madsen; Stars: Fakir Musafar)

Cherub

On a trip to an adult store, Harvey comes across the gay magazine Cherub – for ‘big men and their admirers’. He discovers an opportunity to build new confidence in himself and his body.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Devin Shears; Stars: Benjamin Turnbull)

A Few Feet Away (A Metros De Distancia)

20-year-old Santiago has a penchant for hook-up apps. His phone always at hand, he scrolls constantly to see who’s available and nearby. Over course of one night, going from tentative trysts to sex clubs, he searches for something seemingly out of reach, regardless of the proximity of his next hookup.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2024; Director: Tadeo Pestaña Caro; Stars: Max Suen, Jazmín Carballo)

Hot Milk

Review preview for Hot Milk

Mackey is a simmering, sullen, potent lead, keeping viewers on edge even as she lounges in the sun.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Rose and her daughter Sofia journey to a Spanish seaside town to meet an enigmatic healer. As Sofia embraces an affair with an alluring stranger, tensions with her overbearing mother threaten their fragile bond.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Rebecca Lenkiewicz; Writer: Deborah Levy; Stars: Emma Mackey, Vicky Krieps, Fiona Shaw, Vincent Perez, Yann Gael, Patsy Ferran, Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Korina Gougouli, Vasilis Tsigristaris, Paris Thomopoulos, Dimitris Oikonomidis, Denia Mimerini, Electra Sarri, Kostas Tatarakis)

Full review

Memorabilia

From the confines of his hospital bed, a dying man sifts through his mind’s extensive archives, attempting to recall every one of his many lovers.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Charles Lum, Todd Verow; Writer: Charles Lum, Todd Verow; Stars: James Kleinmann, Justin Ivan Brown, JJ Bozeman)

Onda Nova (New Wave)

Review preview for Onda Nova

Throughout the film there is a sense of play, and even as the story evolves to take on darker material, something of that lightness, that happy-go-lucky quality remains.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The sheer existence of newly formed football team Gayvotas means defiance in a repressed society that despises them. For these women, modesty is a stranger, liberation reigns supreme and sexuality is fluid – their lives presenting a gloriously free alternative to the oppressive regime.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 1983; Director: Ícaro (Francisco C) Martins, José Antonio Garcia; Writer: Ícaro (Francisco C) Martins, José Antonio Garcia; Stars: Carla Camurati, Cristina Mutarelli)

Full review See: Interview with Francisco Martins and Julia Duarte about Onda Nova

The Pleasure Is Mine

A charismatic young hustler makes a living selling drugs and stealing from the people he hooks up with.

(Country: Argentina, Brazil, France; Year: 2024; Director: Sacha Amaral; Writer: Sacha Amaral; Stars: Max Suen, Sofía Palomino, Katja Alemann)

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Esteban Arango; Writer: River Gallo; Stars: Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Indya Moore, Murray Bartlett, River Gallo, Keith William Richards, Bryant Carroll, Juan Carlos Hernández, Jari Jones, Moisés Acevedo, NaTonia Monét, Annie Henk, Stephen Moscatello, Miles Coreas, Kevin Matthew Mcdonald)

Really Happy Someday

Review preview for Really Happy Someday

The film hinges on amazing vocal work by Lalama.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Once a rising star of musical theatre, a young man has to find his voice, career and identity all over again after his transition.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: J Stevens; Writer: J Stevens, Breton Lalama; Stars: Breton Lalama, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Xavier Lopez, Ali Garrison, Katharine King So)

Full review See: Interview with J Stevens and Breton Lalama about Really Happy Someday

Rent Free

This freewheeling comedy follows down-on-their-luck Gen Z best friends Ben and Jordan as they mooch off of their friends’ and acquaintances’ hospitality, all while grappling with love, heartbreak and awkward flings.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Fernando Andrés; Writer: Fernando Andrés, Tyler Rugh; Stars: Jacob Roberts, David Treviño, Zeke Goodman, Sarah J. Bartholomew, Temple Baker, Annabel O'Hagan, Jeff Kardesch, Frank Mosley, Kristin Slaysman, Bill Wise, Neal Mulani, Carson Barwinkel, Megan Bitchell, Macon Blair, Lorelei Linklater)

The Silence Of My Hands

Saira, an immigrant living in California, and Rosa, the first deaf law student in Guadalajara, Mexico, are trying to make a long-distance relationship work.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2024; Director: Manuel Acuña A; Writer: Lena Guarini, Manuel Acuña A; Stars: Rosa María Casillas Madrigal, Sai Yunuen Medina Soria)

Some Nights I Feel Like Walking

When an old man dies the sex worker he was with decides to fulfil his last wish.

(Country: Philippines, Italy, Singapore; Year: 2024; Director: Petersen Vargas; Writer: Petersen Vargas; Stars: Jomari Angeles, Argel Saycon, Tommy Alejandrino, Gold Aceron, Miguel Odron)

Trans Memoria

Review preview for Trans Memoria

While Verseau talks about how crucial the surgery was to her mental health, the complexity of the emotions experienced afterwards is also made clear.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An intimate documentary diary, which sees the director return to Thailand and to the year 2012, when she underwent gender-affirming surgery.

(Country: Sweden, France; Year: 2024; Director: Victoria Verseau)

Full review

Truth Or Dare

Lust, love, kinks, consent and community are all explored in this experimental documentary, set across Berlin’s sex-positive spaces and private homes.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Maja Classen; Writer: Maja Classen)

Where You Find Me

A doctor seeks escape in Berlin’s club scene while a defiant club manager juggles parenthood and protest.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Willi Andrick, Juan Bermúdez, Isis Rampf, Anna Schröder; Writer: Willi Andrick, Juan Bermúdez, Julia Goldsby, Isis Rampf, Anna Schröder; Stars: Isabella Krieger, Thea Ehre, Paula Essam)