Boys Feels: Desire in the Dark is available to rent or buy now on Amazon Prime Video and Vimeo On-Demand.
One of the things I admire most in NQV Media’s short film collections is the bravery of each film carefully selected, each one a superb and challenging conversation starter that knits together with others into broader discussions on life. In NQV’s Boys Feels: High Tide, we explored adolescence, growing pains and childhood memory, but here the Boys Feels collection takes a different path with an array of short films wrapped in themes of secrecy, repression and hidden desire.
READ MORE: THE MALE GAZE: THE BOY IS MINE
In Boys, we meet Markus during his first few weeks in a youth detention centre as he battles feelings of quiet remorse and uncertainty. However, on meeting Tobbe, Markus finds someone who may be able to see past his crime as he slowly drowns in an ocean of inner turmoil. However, will this new friendship last when Tobbe discovers the reason for Markus’ incarceration? Boys bravely tackles a range of issues many will find uncomfortable, asking searching questions about the nature of rehabilitation, power and guilt.
READ MORE: BOYS FEELS: HIGH TIDE
In our second film, Ioana, themes of love, pain and sacrifice find an urgent voice through the eyes of a young Romanian rent boy called Adrian – his dangerous and dark life on Zurich’s streets, a means to an end, as he saves enough money for his sister to leave Romania and join him in Switzerland. However, in a job where danger lurks around every corner, and his sister’s need to escape escalates, Adrian takes the ultimate risk. Ioana is by far the most striking film of the collection, offering us a haunting story of self-sacrifice.
The subsequent two films in the collection may not carry the power of Boys and Ioana but continue to tackle brave and bold themes of identity and connection. Tomer and Elias delicately unpicks themes of family, identity and jealousy through two twin brothers’ eyes. While in Picnic, the changing relationship between a father and son is laid bare during a prison visit where bonds change forever.
BOYS FEELS: DESIRE IN THE DARK
The collection closes with Klem Holijanda, directed by Sarah Veltmayer; a delightful and heartfelt tale of brotherly love, belonging and escape. Fourteen-year-old Andi and his older brother Florist earn money by selling milk in their small Kosovan village, scraping a living for the family’s survival. However, when Andi discovers a pornographic picture card, he becomes obsessed with following the link printed on its surface. The problem is Andi doesn’t have a phone he can use. But, in his race to follow the link and find a telephone, Andi misses something much more significant. Veltmayer’s tale of adolescent distraction and desire reminds us all of how singular the young mind can be. Here the final scenes pull Andi back into the real world with a loving yet painful jolt.
Boys Feels: Desire in the Dark (2021) – IMDb
Why not explore more short film collections here.
READ MORE – BOYS FEELS: I LOVE TROUBLE
