17/07/2020 - For this latest instalment in our Watch on Cineuropa series, we’ve singled out a few queer works you may have missed, and are well worth your time

Pride may be a couple of weeks behind us already, but it’s never too late to discover new LGBT-themed stunners. And if you think you’ve already seen all the classics of the genre, this list may convince you otherwise. LGBT cinema offers plenty of hidden treasures besides its best-known landmarks, so for this latest instalment in our Watch on Cineuropa series, we’ve singled out a few queer works you may have missed, and are well worth your time.

These titles are brought to you in partnership with eyelet (read news), a streaming platform designed to give cinephiles around the world access to the very best in independent cinema. In conjunction with eyelet, we are now able to showcase films we’ve been reviewing over the years - titles you can stream and read about on Cineuropa.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for the new movies coming your way soon.

Good manners [+see also:
film review
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film profile]

The werewolf legend gets a sensual and wildly imaginative reboot in Good Manners, where a wealthy Sao Paolo single mother-to-be and her maid enter a very passionate, very dangerous affair… Come for the thrills, stay for the directors’ subtle critique of inequalities in present-day Brazil. 

The Shiny Shrimps [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

After former Olympic waterpolo champion Matthias makes a homophobic statement on TV, he’s assigned to coach the Shiny Shrimps, an amateur gay waterpolo team. Their mission? To qualify for the Gay Games in Croatia. Both uplifting and thought-provoking, here’s tale that flies well above feel-good fantasy, and offers some very sharp commentary on free speech and identity politics.

Tom at the Farm [+see also:
film review
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film profile]

Xavier Dolan claims he never watched any Hitchcock before he began directing, but this spellbinding psychodrama, where lies and grief and lust are all tied together, is worthy of a Master-of-Suspense top-tier thriller. A sexy and wildly entertaining entry in the filmography of Canada’s own enfant terrible.

Manta Ray [+see also:
film review
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film profile]

A dreamlike vision and unforgettable hymn to empathy and fraternity, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s prizewinning “Manta Ray” is a tale of love and belonging set on a coastal village in Thailand, chronicling the greater-than-friendship bond between a Rohingya refugee and a local fisherman who comes to his rescue.

Cassandro, the Exotico! [+see also:
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Cassandro, the icon of cross-dressing Mexican wrestlers known as Exoticos, gets an affecting biopic treatment from Marie Losier. Slotted in Cannes’ Acid sidebar, it’s a moving and charming spectacle of resilience.

Knife + Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Maury
interview: Yann Gonzalez
film profile]

M83’s Yann Gonzalez stages a rollicking horror in “Knife + Heart,” starring Vanessa Paradis as a producer, director, and screenwriter of a gay porn studio haunted by a killer wielding a knife-cum-dildo. An Italian-style horror that tips its hat to Brian de Palma, and thrums to the beats of M83 - who else?

The Duke of Burgundy [+see also:
film review
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There’s fetishism, voyeurism, and all sorts of S&M kinks, but Peter Strickland’s fulminating “The Duke of Burgundy” is everything that “Fifty Shades of Gray” isn’t: an intelligent, subversive and visually stunning film about how difficult it is to make a fantasy work, and share it with someone you love.

God’s Own Country [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Francis Lee
film profile]

Francis Lee’s heart-wrenching film may not have enjoyed quite the same visibility of what was possibly the most talked about queer movie of 2017, “Call Me By Your Name,” but it deserves all the love and attention you can give: it’s a landmark of the genre, and a love story for the ages.

My Beautiful Laundrette

An Oscar-nominated script by Hanif Kureishi, a phenomenal performance by a then 28-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis, and Stephen Frears’s impeccable directing. No wonder “My Beautiful Laundrette,” a rebelliously queer coming-of-age peopled by different kinds of outsiders in Thatcher’s Britain, has turned into an ageless classic. Whether you’ve seen it already or not, set aside 98 minutes and let it nurture your soul. You won’t regret it.

Rafiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wanuri Kahiu
film profile]

“Rafiki” made history as the first Kenyan film to be screened in Cannes, where it competed for the Palm d’Or in 2018. But this queer romance of two girlfriends struggling against family pressures was considered way too hopeful by Kenyan censors, who banned the film “for its clear intent to promote lesbianism contrary to the law.” Another reason to watch it.

From Afar

With this tale of a troubled middle-aged man who pays teenagers for company in the streets of Caracas, Venezuelan Lorenzo Vigas won the 2015 Golden Lion in Venice - an all the more impressive feat if you think that this poignant drama was his first feature.