Santuaryo

Three couples at different parts of life navigate big turning points in their lives over the holidays.

In a quirky, small town, situated in the outskirts of everything, 14-year-old Martin is getting ready for one of the most formal transitions from boy to man; the communion. It's 1976, music's in the air and hormones are blossoming. But in the midst of it all Martin's mother suddenly passes away and her tragic death trickers a series of events that not only changes Martin's life forever, but also affects everyone else in the local community. Overwhelmed with grief neither Martin's dad, nor his older brother, is capable to comfort Martin. He enters adulthood in a mixture of drunken happiness and immense sadness over the loss of his mother, and his relationship to both his friend Kim and girlfriend Kristine comes to its natural conclusion.

Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.

Sergio is a brooding, alienated man who works as a trash collector in Lisbon by day and roams the city streets by night seeking rough, anonymous sex with men. One night he meets a man who seems to be the embodiment of his tormented fantasies, and he becomes obsessed with the stranger until loneliness and unfulfilled desire propel him finally into a dark and dangerous animalistic state.

A black fisherman now working at a local gas station, Antônio lives at the small beach town of Atafona. His biggest ambition is to stash enough money to leave to a big city with his fiancee, a mix-raced girl who sells fresh crabs to locals and wishes for a better life. When a rich white woman from the high society arrives to spend a few days away after ending a failed marriage, Antônio soon bonds with her and begins to change his plans.

Wasteland is a five-part anthology film that deals with isolation, mental illness, and the subjectivity of reality. Each of the five parts can be watched individually, but when viewed in sequence, each story brings out a more interesting and distinct context to its respective pieces.

Martin (Joe Newton) is a casualty of society. He is under appreciated and overworked as a salary man in the city. With mounting pressure on his shoulders, he experiences a breakdown at work and loses his job. After visiting his childhood home to collect some possessions, he opts not to go home but instead chooses to live off grid in the vast woodland. Here he attempts to survive, to try and find himself again, through being amongst nature and his love of writing poetry.

Mario and Kike hook up on a dating app. What initially was never meant to be more than a sex date will turn into something else, in spite of their different ways of viewing their bisexuality and how they both cope with it in their respective social circles.

After a failed relationship, a deadbeat man tries to live off the land in a beach town on Long Island.

Story about a happily married couple visited by an old friend, who ends up stirring the pot by becoming sexually involved with both the husband and the wife.