Sebastian is an exquisitely shot, beautifully performed, and fearless motion picture that is enthralling and enticing, cementing Mikko Mäkelä’s place among his generation’s most exciting writers and directors.
James Baldwin famously said, “The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people who produced him.” All of us, as writers, are aware that our words are shaped by our experiences, whether in fiction or journalism; in fact, any writer who claims to write free from the experiences that have moulded them into the person they are is lying. Many writers need inspiration, lived experience and understanding to create; they need the spark that allows their words to fall onto the page. Some writers choose to immerse themselves in their chosen topic, discarding distance and objectivity to focus on the internal experience of external events. In part, Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian is about the excitement, risk and danger of artistic immersion. However, it is also a film that prompts us to question labels, consider creative boundaries, and reassess our views on sex work in 21st-century Britain.
For twenty-five-year-old Max (Ruaridh Mollica), an aspiring Scottish writer living and working in London, lived experience is essential to constructing his first novel, which he hopes will enable him to escape the world of freelance magazine work. His book is about a young gay escort called Sebastian, but Sebastian isn’t a literary creation; he is Max’s alter ego. It could be argued that sex worker Sebastian is the Jekyll, to the studious and quiet Max’s Hyde, but this is no supernatural story of split personalities or good versus evil; Sebastian and Max are one: two sides of the same coin striving for sexual liberation, understanding and artistic freedom in a city where loneliness, excitement, fear, and opportunity sit around every corner.
Sebastian is bold, erotic and sensual, his toned, chiselled body tingling with the excitement and fascination of each paying customer, but can Max let his alter ego in and reject the sense of shame that haunts him during the day? One man holds the key to helping Max and Sebastian become one: Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde), a sensitive, artistic, knowledgeable editor and ex-lecturer who sees Sebastian in Max and Max in Sebastian.
Mikko Mäkelä’s stunning film offers a thoughtful exploration of Oscar Wilde’s famous quote, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life”, as he places sex, intimacy, artistic drive, the exploitation of marginalised voices and intergenerational gay experience under the microscope. However, it is Mäkelä’s bold conversations on 21st-century sex work that make Sebastian a game-changer.
LGBTQ+ storytelling has often viewed male sex work as an outcome and cause of trauma and abuse. Films have frequently focused on the need to escape sex work rather than the desire to embrace it. While Camille Vidal-Naquet’s Sauvage demonstrated the critical role of the sex worker for many older, isolated men, and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho explored the emotional complexity of a profession hidden in the shadows, both also focused on the need to escape. While Mikko Mäkelä doesn’t shy away from reflecting on the risks Max takes, Sebastian is, at its heart, a portrait of artistic growth, the need for an authentic voice and a choice to immerse oneself in an ancient profession.
Following his debut feature, A Moment in the Reeds (2017), Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian is bold in its scope and vision. From erotic sex scenes to moments of quiet reflection or the contrast between the loneliness of urban sprawl and the warm, comforting glow of intimate living spaces, Sebastian is a sensory and charged experience that leaves an indelible mark. It is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating explorations of sex, art, and the complexities of the human connections we build through touch, conversation or desire that I have seen since My Own Private Idaho. And that brings me to Ruaridh Mollica’s performance.
Mollica is a revelation as Max. His stunning performance holds such emotion, intuition, sensuality and power that taking your eyes off him is impossible. Every look hides a complex set of emotions, and every word holds deep artistic curiosity, vulnerability and a longing for lived experience in freeing internal creativity. Mollica starred in BBC Three‘s Red Rose and several mini-series and shorts, but it is Sebastian that firmly announces his arrival as an exciting, dynamic, expressive and brave leading actor.
As we are immersed in Max’s world of sex, art, and literature, we watch as a shy but ambitious writer and his confident, sensual alter ego slowly merge on a journey toward self-discovery and artistic freedom. Sebastian is an exquisitely shot, beautifully performed, and fearless motion picture that is enthralling and enticing, cementing Mikko Mäkelä’s place among his generation’s most exciting writers and directors.
Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian arrives in cinemas nationwide on April 4.
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