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Flare · 2025

Flare 2025

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16 films · 6 reviews

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The Astronaut Lovers (Los Amantes Astronautas)

A man travels from Spain to Argentina for a vacation at his family home, where he becomes attracted to a childhood friend. Their subsequent relationship is full of misunderstandings, as they try to hide it from family and friends.

(Country: Argentina, Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Marco Berger; Writer: Marco Berger; Stars: Ailín Salas, Lautaro Bettoni, Javier Orán, Mora Arenillas)

Departures

Review preview for Departures

There is plenty here for viewers to relate to, whether or not they’ve ever gone to those extremes. There’s also an ample supply of humour, with laugh-out-loud moments occurring in the bleakest situations.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Benji meets Jake at an airport check-out gate and is immediately intrigued. Jake is fit, elusive, dominant and, as Benji happily suspects, ‘a bit gay’. Cue monthly getaways to Amsterdam, a lot of sex and the creeping emergence of a doomed power dynamic.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Neil Ely; Writer: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan; Stars: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, David Tag, Liam Boyle)

Full review

Drip Like Coffee

An intimate connection between two Brooklyn baristas brews a journey of mutual empowerment and sensual transformation.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Anaiis Cisco; Writer: Anaiis Cisco; Stars: Iman Artwell-Freeman, Kashanie Lagrotta-Butler, Ralphy Lopez, Brittney Jenkins)

Drive Back Home

A gruff New Brunswick plumber reluctantly drives to Toronto to bail his estranged, gay brother out of jail. Forced together, the brothers face their differences on their journey home.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Michael Clowater; Writer: Michael Clowater; Stars: Alan Cumming, Charlie Creed-Miles, Clare Coulter, Sprague Grayden)

Fatherhood (Tre Fedre, Three Dads And A Baby)

Review preview for Fatherhood

Despite the anger at the unfairness of what has gone before, this is ultimately a warm-hearted, life-affirming film.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Between 1979 and 2016, trans people in Norway were forced to undergo sterilisation, depriving them of their right to bear children. Kris has dreamed of becoming a father since kindergarten. Together with his partners Sindre and David, he becomes a part of the resistance forging change.

(Country: Norway, Iceland, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: August B Hanssen, Even G Benestad; Writer: August B Hanssen, Even G Benestad)

Full review

Four Mothers

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2024; Director: Darren Thornton; Writer: Colin Thornton, Darren Thornton; Stars: James McArdle, Fionnula Flanagan, Dearbhla Molloy, Stella McCusker, Paddy Glynn, Gaetan Garcia, Niamh Cusack, Gearoid Farrelly, Rory O'Neill, Adam Fergus, Gordon Hickey, Eloka Ivo, Leonora Lonsdale, Kim Daly, Nicola Devine)

High Tide

Heartbroken and adrift, an undocumented Brazilian immigrant searches for purpose in the queer mecca of Provincetown. As the summer season comes to a fade, he finds an intense and unexpected romance.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Marco Calvani; Writer: Marco Calvani; Stars: Marco Pigossi, James Bland, Marisa Tomei, Bill Irwin, Sean Mahon, Mya Taylor)

Lakeview

Review preview for Lakeview

Thorne still comes across as being at the stage where many aspects of her work are experimental. She’s yet to settle into her style.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Darcy, a bisexual woman, is divorcing her husband. Her close friends all arrive at her parents’ lakeside house, ready to see her through this major life development. However, everyone is distracted by their own dramas, relationships and personal milestones.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Tara Thorne; Writer: Tara Thorne; Stars: Lesley Smith, Hilary Adams, Nicole Steeves)

Full review See: Interview with Tara Thorne about Lakeview

Lucky, Apartment (Reokki, Apateu)

Seonwoo and Heeseo have put everything into their small flat and life together. After losing her job, Seonwoo finds herself at home every day, obsessing over a foul odour she cannot get rid of.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Kangyu Garam; Writer: Kangyu Garam; Stars: Sohn Suhyun, Park Gayoung)

Manok

A generational clash with the younger queer community in Seoul causes lesbian elder Manok to retreat to her rural hometown, but she walks straight into another chaotic battle, this time with her spiteful ex-husband who is also the town’s mayor.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2025; Director: Lee Yu-jin; Writer: Lee Yu-jin; Stars: Yang Mal-bok, Sung Jae-yun, Park Wan-kyu)

A Night Like This

Struggling actor Lukas and wealthy entrepreneur Oliver couldn’t be more different, with Lukas’ quiet demeanour a stark contrast to Oliver’s bravado. Nevertheless, after a decidedly un-cute meet, the pair stay out all night, intent on getting to know each other and inadvertently getting to know themselves in the process.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Liam Calvert; Writer: Diego Scerrati; Stars: Alexander Lincoln, Jack Brett Anderson, David Bradley)

Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip)

Review preview for Sandbag Dam

Sandbag Dam is powered by stellar, deeply lived-in performances by the young and budding actors.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 4 out of 5
In a village threatened by flooding a young man's life is turned upside down by the rekindling of a forbidden romance.

(Country: Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania; Year: 2025; Director: Čejen Černić Čanak; Writer: Tomislav Zajec, Čejen Černić Čanak; Stars: Lav Novosel, Andrija Žunić, Leon Grgić, Franka Mikolaci, Tanja Smoje, Alma Prica, Filip Šovagović)

Full review

Summer's Camera

Review preview for Summer's Camera

Sung’s own camera plays tricks, placing objects too close in the foreground so that parts of an image are out of focus, like an incomplete memory.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Summer refuses to shoot the unfinished roll of film in her father’s camera. That is, until she finds herself captivated by Yeon-woo, her school’s football star. But when the roll is developed, Summer discovers her father’s own high-school relationship with Maru, a local hairdresser.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Divine Sung; Stars: Kim Sia)

Full review

To Our Friends (A nuestros amigos)

Sara and Pedro, young adults from a working-class suburb of Madrid, love to raise hell together. But over the course of a summer, Sara makes new friends who introduce her to another world, that of the theatre. Caught up in a whirlwind of love and parties, she becomes torn between the two worlds.

(Country: Spain, Portugal; Year: 2024; Director: Adrián Orr)

We Are Faheem & Karun

Review preview for We Are Faheem & Karun

Through the lens of the men’s romance, Onir takes in a good deal more, exploring the complex realities behind assumptions of prejudice and the myriad factors that go into making each of us who we are.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Karun, a security man from southern India, is posted to Gurez, a remote village in Kashmir. There, he begins a relationship with Faheem, a young Kashmiri man. But it’s a romance that seems doomed from the start

(Country: India; Year: 2024; Director: Onir; Writer: Onir, Fawzia Mirza; Stars: Mir Tawseef, Akash Menon, Mir Salman)

Full review See: Interview with Onir about We Are Faheem & Karun

Winter Kept Us Warm

A close friendship between male students at the University of Toronto in the Sixties begins to develop sexual and romantic overtones.

(Country: Canada; Year: 1965; Director: David Secter; Writer: David Secter, Ian Porter, John Clute; Stars: John Labow, Henry Tarvainen, Joy Tepperman)