Joins us for a disarmingly sweet tale of two Thai students who must decide whether they are brave enough to live lesbian lives. The first feature film in Thailand to be promoted as a lesbian film, Yes or No? has been an impressive success. Five years in the making, this disarmingly sweet film has been shown in cinemas across Thailand, made a modest profit at the box office and gained a best director nomination at the Thai equivalent to the Oscars. The plot focuses on the forthright Pie and more gentle Kim who are thrown together at university halls of residence. As Pie begins to let go of the prejudices she has inherited from her mother and Kim comes to terms with her tom (butch) identity, the pair become close friends and have to consider whether they are brave enough to be more than that. (Description courtesy of Nazmia Jamal, London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.)

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Carlos is spending the summer in the country with his family in order to help out with things. Perhaps he won’t even be returning to the capital, as economic prospects are hardly rosy there either. Extremadura on the other hand, sparsely populated and for a long time one of the most neglected regions in Europe, is experiencing a tentative upturn. Tourism and modernisation rub shoulders with almost archaic customs and a conservative, mostly elderly population here. Sleepless Knights depicts all this in casual, unobtrusive fashion, in images that have at times a truly otherworldly beauty. The central theme is the love story between the newly returned Carlos and the young policeman Juan. “You don’t look like you’re from here,” remarks Juan when they meet. “I’m not from here,“ replies Carlos, “I live in Madrid.” Whether to be from here or elsewhere is a decision that many here have to make. Extremadura, Madrid, maybe even Munich? This uncertainty suffuses their love story with a peculiar sense of tension before the backdrop of a seemingly relaxed, uneventful summer. It is only the old men striding through the austere landscape in their strange knight costumes who remain blissfully untroubled.

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Set in a small town on the Belgian coast in the late 1960s and 70s, adolescent introverted dreamer Pim grows up accustomed to neglect from his selfish mother Yvette. Pim eventually finds succor at the home of Yvette’s co-worker Marcella where he heroworships her older son, Gino. Friendship grows into love when Gino, cautioning Pim to secrecy, supplies the besotted boy’s first sexual experiences. But when Gino begins a relationship with a French girl, jealous Pim focuses his wistful romantic fantasies on Zoltan, the hunky itinerant fun-fair worker who comes to board at his house. Winner: Alice in the City Award, Rome Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award and Best Feature Debut, Montreal Film Festival. (Description courtesy of Palm Spring International Film Festival.)

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