Venice Film Festival 2023 Archives

Blue Jean

England 1988 – Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government is about to pass a law that will not allow gay men and women to work in the education system. Out of fear for her job, PE teacher Jean is forced to live a double life. Her personal life becomes even more complicated when her activist partner starts pressuring her to come out of the closet. When a new student in Jean’s school shows up unexpectedly in the local lesbian bar where Jean and her friends hang out, the meeting pushes Jean further towards the edge and challenges her life choices.

“Blue Jean” is a portrait of a woman who only wants to keep her life and identity private, while the social and political reality, that is so much bigger than her, will force her to make a stand. Rosy McEwen takes the screen by storm as Jean. Georgia Oakley’s debut film was already screened in over 50 festivals worldwide and has rightly won many awards.

Housekeeping for Beginners

Director Goran Stolevski (“You Won’t Be Alone”) had won a Special Mention award at the 2018 TLVFest for his wonderful short film “Would You Look at Her”. This time he brings us a moving, universal and different piece on motherhood and family.

Dita (Anamaria Marinca, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”) never wanted to be a mother, but life forces her to raise her partner’s daughters – Mia, the youngest, is a trouble magnet and Vanessa is a rebellious teenager. In order to keep custody of the girls Dita must marry her gay roommate and get help from his young Roma boyfriend who found refuge in this unstable house. Now all those very different people will have to learn how to be a family together.
The film was shot in Cinéma vérité style and watching it feels very realistic, with an intense and dense atmosphere that tells the story just as much as the plot.

Macedonian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards

Eismayer

Sergeant Major Eismayer is known and feared as the toughest training officer in the Austrian Armed Forces. Ruthless with recruits and unwavering in his discipline, order and macho toughness. But when he starts to fall in love with Falak, a new recruit who unashamedly embraces his homosexuality, Eismayer’s closeted existence is shaken to the core. To a man like Eismayer, loving another man cannot be reconciled with the understanding of what a model soldier should be. Will he choose to protect his badass tough guy image over all else, or can he follow his heart and his true desire?
Based on real events.

In association with the Austrian Cultural Forum

Three Nights A Week

The surprising funny and romantic drama of the year brings to the big screen a refreshing and stigma breaking character.
Cookie Kunty is a talented Parisian drag queen. Everyone who is familiar with the world of drag knows how hard it is for drag queens to find love. Therefore, when Cookie meets 29 years old Baptiste, she finds it hard to believe that he’s interested in her, but Baptiste is immediately mesmerized by Cookie. At first he’s driven by the idea of creating a photography project with Cookie and sinks into her world, but eventually starts to develop a relationship with Quentin, the young man behind the drag queen. The problem is, Baptiste has never been in a relationship with a man before and he is in a long term relationship with Samia, a hospital nurse, who also works at the HIV clinic.
In his debut film director Florent Gouëlou provides the audience a cinematic experience rich in colors and music, and featuring a different and surprising love story, which is also a coming out story, the likes of which was never before seen on the big screen. Actor Pablo Pauly is wonderful as Baptiste and Romain Eck as Cookie/Quentin builds a moving and complex character.
The result is pure enjoyment and it is certainly no surprise that “Three Nights a Week” was chosen as the opening film of the 2022 Critics’ Week of the Venice Film Festival.

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Venice Film Festival 2023

Blue Jean

Housekeeping for Beginners

Eismayer

Three Nights A Week

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