La Mala Educación (2004)

In the early 1960s, two school boys Ignacio Rodriguez (Francisco Boira) and Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez), discover love, cinema, and fear in a religious school. Padre Manolo (Daniel Giménez Cacho), the school principal and their literature teacher, is witness to and part of these discoveries. On discovering the two boys' affection for each other, the priest, who is himself engrossed with Ignacio, is jealous and threatens to expel Enrique as a "bad influence". In an attempt to prevent this Ignacio promises to do whatever the priest asks of him. After molesting Ignacio, the priest expels Enrique anyway.

The film jumps to the 1980s with the boys now young adults. In Madrid, Ignacio (Gael García Bernal) lands on the doorstep of Enrique (Nacho Pérez), who is now a famous filmmaker. Ignacio is an aspiring actor with the stage name Ángel Andrade. He has a semi-autobiographical manuscript which he hopes Enrique will turn into a screenplay and cast him in one of the major roles. The short story is about their time at the Catholic school together and the physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Padre Manolo. It also includes a fictionalized account of their reunion after all those years.

Enrique wants to adapt Ignacio's story into a film, but "Ignacio's" condition is that he play the part of Zahara, the transsexual lead. Enrique remains skeptical, for he feels that the Ignacio whom he loved and the Ignacio of today are totally different people. He drives to Galicia to Ignacio's mother and learns that the real Ignacio has been dead for four years and that the man who came to his office is really Ignacio's younger brother, Juan.

Enrique's interest is piqued, and he decides to do the movie with Juan in the role of Ignacio to find out what drives Juan. Enrique and "Ignacio" start a relationship, and Enrique revises the script so that it ends with Padre Manolo, whom Ignacio was trying to blackmail to get money for sex reassignment surgery, having Ignacio murdered. When the scene is shot, "Ignacio" breaks out in tears unexpectedly.

The movie set is visited by Manuel Berenguer (Lluís Homar), who is none other than the real Padre Manolo, who has resigned from Church duty. Manuel confesses to Enrique that the new ending of the film is not far from the truth: the real Ignacio blackmailed Manuel, who somehow managed to scratch together the money but also took an interest in Ignacio's younger brother Juan. Juan and Manuel started a relationship and after a while realized they both wanted to see Ignacio dead. Juan scored some very pure heroin, so that his brother would die by overdose after shooting up.

Enrique is shocked and not at all interested in Juan's weak vindications for what he did to his brother. Finally, before he leaves, Juan gives Enrique a piece of paper: a letter to Enrique that Ignacio was in the middle of typing when he died.

"La Mala Educación" is a potent, complex, twisty, sexually provocative thriller very similar to a Hitchcock film. It features a gender-bending performance from Gael Garcia-Bernal, and an ingenious convoluted plot. It's a remarkably creative comment on sexual abuse among Roman Catholic clergy, but is far from being straightforward or confined to one theme. The film weaves a complex tale of exploitation, deceit, ambition, seduction, and blackmail that places a story within a story and shifts back and forth in time. Alberto Iglesias composed the music, and Pedro Almodóvar wrote the screenplay and directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The English title is "Bad Education".

Bangkok Love Story (2007)

In the world of Thai organized crime there is a star assassin named Mhek (Rattanaballang Tohssawat) , a lone gunman who kills "bad people" to satisfy his bosses, but cannot kill "good people". He is assigned to kidnap a police informant named Iht (Chaiwat Thongsaeng), but Mhek has a change of heart when he is ordered to kill Iht. In a gunbattle with his employers, Mhek is wounded, but Iht grabs Mhek's gun and returns fire. The two men then escape on Mhek's motorcycle. At Mhek's rooftop hide-out, Iht tends to Mhek's wound and finds himself attracted to Mhek. While giving Mhek a bath one day, Iht initiates sexual intercourse with the hitman. Conflicted, Mhek demands that Iht leave him alone. Iht returns home to his fiancee, Saai (Chutcha Rujinanon), but is no longer interested in continuing a relationship with her. He spends his days pining over Mhek, and tracks down Mhek's brother, Mhok (Wiradit Srimalai), and their mother. Mhek is the sole support of his mother and younger brother, both of them HIV-positive. The source of their infection is the abusive live-in stepfather.

Mhek's dream is to take his mother and brother away from Bangkok to the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province. But after Mhek's mother has realised Mhok sold himself to survive, she commits suicide by hanging herself. At the same time Iht's fiancee, Saai, also witnesses Mhek and Iht kissing, and terminates their marriage plans. Meanwhile, Mhek's former employers are gunning for him. Mhek decides to hunt them, and he manages to kill them. He also goes to Mhek's former bosses' hide-out to try and stop Mhek, but he is too late and misses Mhek by a second. Iht gets injured when the wife of Mhek's former boss shoots a clock that shatters in Iht's face. Mhek, meanwhile, is planning to meet his brother at the railway station to leave Bangkok for good. But before he can board the train, he is apprehended by the police and sent to prison.

Years pass by. Iht visits Mhek in prison and reveals that he was left blind in the final gunbattle with Mhek's bosses. Mhok commits suicide while at a Hospice in Northern Thailand because he no longer has the energy to fight his disease. Eventually, Mhek is released from prison, and Iht meets him. But before the two men can leave to start their life together, Mhek is gunned down by an assassin.

Iht eventually gets his sight back, and the first thing he does is to look at his mobile phone, which has a picture of Mhek on it that he took many years before and a video taken by Mhek himself saying that all along, he loved Iht and that he would love him to his last breath. The ending could have been triumphant, but instead is tragic, which makes the film even more powerful.

This gay romantic crime action drama is the story of a man who falls in love with a gunman who is assigned to kill him. The cast of actors is excellent and the chemistry between the two leads is undiluted by the forces that are meant to separate them. Ultimately it is a love story between two classes of people whose discovery of forbidden love emphasizes some universal truths. It is a well-made, beautifully photographed film, but unfortunately there are censored versions with artificial fuzzy and darkened areas. Plus the DVD cover art is misleading. Poj Arnon wrote the script and directed. The Thai title is "Puen". In Thai with English subtitles.

(2005) ילדים טובים

In Tel Aviv, 17 year-old Meni (Daniel Efrat) wears only the most fashionable clothes, is interested in music, loves the cinema, and works as a rent boy. He is the father of the baby of former girlfriend Mika (Nili Tzerruya), a young drug addict prostitute. Mika has serious mental problems with drug abuse and is also homeless. She shows up at Meni's apartment and they have lengthy conversations about themselves and their daughter. Meni has an adoptive mother Grace (Gila Goldstein) who is a trans-gender prostitute, and clients that contact him on his cell-phone. One night he meets Tal (Yuval Raz), also a hustler and they decide to spend the night together. During that night their lives take on a new meaning, and in the morning they decide to meet later at a club. Until the meeting, both of them have to deal with their weary routine of clients, marginalized people, and unexpected events.

One evening a voyeuristic john enlists the pair to have sex together. But the experience proves to be more than just a simple trick: it stirs up feelings between Meni and Tal, and they decide to meet again the next day. But they never see each other. Meni becomes upset. Tal gets picked by a brutal, vicious, corrupt cop (Dvir Benedek), who becomes his pimp. He is beaten up and badly abused, and Tal retaliates by killing him. Mika drops off her little girl with one of Meni's friends and goes back to prostitution. Meni tries to talk her into coming back with him, but she refuses. Then Meni tries to give his little girl to her parents but they refuse. In the meantime, Tal tries to find Meni but fails and goes back to his apartment and bed, falling asleep crying. Meni and a friend with his daughter watch a sunrise, and the movie ends.

Stirring and sexy, with emotional depth, "Yeladim Tovim" was written and directed by Yair Hochner, a high school film teacher and film critic for Israel’s “Seret” cinema website. His love of moves permeates every frame, with inspiration from Godard, Gus Van Sant, John Cooper, and John Waters. It has the look of a documentary in its simplicity and candor, and the dedicated performances, strong scripting and good direction adds up to a very good film. Eli Surani composed the music score. In Hebrew with English subtitles. The English title is "Good Boys".

Ang Lihim ni Antonio (2008)

In Manila, 15 year-old Antonio (or Tong) (Kenji Garcia) is a curious and confident young man who is newly aware of his homosexuality. Tong’s exploration of his identity unfolds as his family begins to break up. His mother Tere (Shamaine Buencamino) is in denial that his father has abandoned them. During a sleepover at his friend Nathan’s (Nino Fernandez), after a night of drinking and aroused by normal adolescent sex talk, Tong makes a pass at his sleeping friend. Much to his surprise, Nathan does not offer any resistance, and the two boys share their first sexual experience. Unfortunately, a satisfying and memorable night turns into disappointment when Nathan starts avoiding Tong the next day. Sensing something isn’t right, his best friend Mike (Jiro Manio) becomes curious. Tong is forced to tell the truth and comes out to him. Mike is totally supportive, and generally offers a comedic side to this otherwise serious film.

Soon Tong’s hedonistic and very hot 25 year-old uncle Jonbert (Josh Ivan Morales) arrives from the province to stay with him and his mom for a few weeks. Things begin to unravel as Jonbert becomes Tong’s sexual obsession, and the uncle reciprocates. A shocking tragedy begins to spiral up and as a result Tong's mother saves her son by stabbing and killing Jonbert. The intense ending leaves the audience with a feeling of disturbed emotions as Tong and his mother are escorted by the authorities.

"Ang Lihim ni Antonio" confronts the taboo topic of incest head on while giving an authentic portrait of middle-class life in Manila. It's a raw and honest look at the not-so-secret, and sometimes downright depraved sex life of sexually frustrated teenage boys. This rich story is of a confused young man, growing up with few positive role models, who makes crucial choices and is forced to face their tragic consequences. The scene-stealer of the movie is Shamaine Buencamino who plays Antonio's mother. Her acting, particularly in the last part of the movie, is brilliant. The film uses a sometimes wobbly handheld camera without much of a musical soundtrack, except for the occasional tunes from the acoustic guitar of a neighborhood musician, making it a voyeuristic and intimate affair. There are explicit sex scenes, adult content, and one graphic scene of violence. Currently, this film is one of the highest grossing Filipino digital films in history. Lex Bonife wrote the screenplay, and Joselito Altarejos directed. In Tagalog with English Subtitles. The English title is "Antonio’s Secret".

Οξυγόνο (2003)

In a suburb of Athens, Magda (Nena Mendi) and her husband Manolis (Alexandros Antonopoulos) are the parents of two adults: handsome 20 year-old son Christos (Yannis Tsimitselis), who is studying at the local college, and less attractive daughter Giota (Jeannie Papadopoulou). The mother runs a bakery while caring for her invalid husband injured in a car crash that killed a daughter. Giota, who still lives in the family home, is married to Stelios (Alexis Georgoulis), while hunky Christos has a significantly more interesting love life. He has a girlfriend and is also enjoying discreet affairs with both his chemistry professor from school, Vicky (Maria Kavoyianni), and her spouse, Yorgos (Akylas Karazisis), a powerful local real estate developer.

Giota and Stelios are keen on Magda selling some property she owns, which Yorgos wants to use for a fast-food franchise. This sale could mean a major windfall for the family, but Magda doesn't want to part with her land, which has been owned by her people for years and has great meaning for her. Stelios has learned about Christos' relationship with Yorgos, and he attempts to use this knowledge to extort Christos into helping change Magda's mind. But Stelios doesn't know that Christos has some ideas of his own about what makes for the best use of the land. The plot is convoluted but basically boils down to the development of a blackmail plan that will gain money for the land the family owns. The lives of all the characters are altered once greed consumes them and there are discoveries, a death, betrayals, twists and feuds that end in a surprising manner.

This violent Greek drama about a mother attempting to keep her crumbling dysfunctional family together in the wake of tragic accident is a dark soap opera with a strong cast and a fast moving story. It is both admired and hated for its laissez-faire attitude towards sex, its fruity language, and its black comedy. You'll love it or hate it. Nikos Kypourgos comosed the original music. Both Thanasis Papathanasiou and Michalis Reppas wrote the screenplay and directed. In Greek with English subtitles. The English title is "Blackmail Boy", released in 2005.

A Home at the End of the World (2004)

In suburban Cleveland in the 1960s, people have a habit of dying around rebellious 14 year-old Bobby Morrow (Andrew Chalmers). First his hippie brother, then his mother, and then his father. Bobby moves in with the family of his best friend from school, conservative and gawky Jonathan Glover (Harris Allan). When the two boys sleep together, even before Bobby moves in permanently, Jonathan puts the moves on him, and Bobby gets involved. The two are inseparable until Jonathan's mother Alice (Sissy Spacek) discovers them in a VW together and Jonathan pulls away from Bobby. Bobby helps Alice accept her son's homosexuality, and she teaches Bobby how to bake, setting him on a career path.

Eight years later, father Ned (Matt Frewer) decides that it's time Bobby move out on his own. Bobby (Erik Smith) follows Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) to NYC, only to be rejected by his childhood friend, at which point he turns to Jonathan's roommate, the free-spirited Clare (Robin Wright Penn), for solace. Jonathan shares a colorful East Village apartment with the bohemian and somewhat older Clare. Bobby (Colin Farrell) moves in, and the three create a nuclear family in the 1980s.

Clare: (on Bobby, when meeting him for the first time) Where did you find him?
Jonathan: He found me.
Clare: Jonathan, blue is your friend. See, blue is the color of sky and water.
Jonathan: White goes with everything
Clare: Yes, well, honey, it's a house, not an outfit.
Jonathan: Hey. I'm sorry about... well, all this. I knew I'd see you both again. I just imagined... well, different circumstances.
Clare: It's OK.
Bobby: It's OK.

Although Jonathan is gay and highly promiscuous, he is deeply in love with Clare, who seduces and falls into a relationship with the bisexual Bobby. Their romance occasionally is disrupted by sparks of jealousy between the two men until Jonathan, tired of being the third wheel, disappears without warning. He re-enters their lives when Ned dies and Bobby and Clare travel to Phoenix, Arizona for the services. The three take Ned's car back east with them, and impulsively decide to buy a house near Woodstock, New York, where Bobby and Jonathan open and operate a cafe while Clare raises the baby daughter she and Bobby have had.

Bobby: Clare, come on.
Clare: I'm pregnant, you f**kers!
Jonathan: Bobby, if you want my family so badly, I hereby bequeath them to you. No, better yet, I hereby bequeath you my whole, entire life. I hereby dub you Jonathan Glover. Tomorrow, when they cremate my father's body, you can be the son and I'll be the best friend. You can come back from the service, and you can console my mother!
Clare: Jonathan, stop it.
Jonathan: You're better at it than I am! You're better qualified, so go! Go at it. Be their son, with my blessing!
Clare: Listen to me, you little s**t! All he's ever done is worship you. And all you've ever done is walk out on him. Don't you dare speak to him like that, you hear me?
Jonathan: You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know the first thing about worship.
Clare: Do you know--do you have any idea how much--how much I wanted you? How much I loved you, you asshole. And then - what an idiot I am. How pathetic is that? Me in love with you. And then Bobby comes along, and I fell in love with this one, and I think that we... that the three of us, maybe we could... F**k it. Just leave me alone and go back in the house and have a drink.

Jonathan discovers what appears to be a Kaposi's sarcoma lesion on his thigh and, although Bobby tries to convince him it's simply a bruise, others soon appear. Clare takes the baby for what ostensibly is a brief visit to her mother in Philadelphia, but Bobby and Jonathan accurately suspect she has no intention of returning and Bobby decides to care for Jonathan during his last days. On a cold winter day, they scatter Ned's ashes in the field behind their home, and Jonathan makes Bobby promise he will scatter his in the same place following his now inevitable early death from complications due to AIDS.

(last lines)
Bobby: I've been thinking. We should repaint Rebecca's room. Like, pink. She'd like that, don't you think?
Jonathan: Mm-hmm.
Bobby: She'll come back someday. To this house, I mean. It'll be hers.
Jonathan: I guess it will be.
Bobby: She probably won't want it, right? She probably won't have any idea what to do with it. But still, it'll be hers, y'know?
Jonathan: It'll be hers. Listen. This'll be an all right place to put my ashes, too, OK?
Bobby: Sure. I mean, whatever you want.
Jonathan: You've built us a very good home.
Bobby: That's not what... That's what you did. That's what you did for me, y'know?
Jonathan: It's funny, isn't it?
Bobby: What?
Jonathan: The big, beautiful, noisy world. Everything that can happen.
Bobby: Yeah. It's funny.
Jonathan: Growing up in the country doesn't doom anybody to good behavior. Most of the realy interesting murderers come from derelict farms.

This movie does a great job of evoking the late 1960s in America, and looks at what we mean by love, commitment and loyalty. More importantly, it re-examines the idea of family, and shows us how it can be redefined. Probably the writer did not intend to punish his characters for their deviancy, but it does seem to be the case. The thinness of the material is a handicap, with numerous emotional scenes left dangling in a narrative vacuum. Some obvious scenes, like the birth of Claire's baby, are inexplicably left out. The changing of the years with a selection of golden oldies becomes tiresome, and the sweet and funny adolescent earlier passages are exhausted by the time we reach the somewhat abrupt conclusion. Farrell's controversial frontal nude scene, allegedly cut for being distracting, was not restored for the DVD release. But the DVD includes a short making-of documentary.

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie exists outside our expectations for such stories. Nothing about it is conventional. The three-member household is puzzling not only to us, but to its members. We expect conflict, resolution, an ending happy or sad, but what we get is mostly life, muddling through... Colin Farrell is astonishing in the movie, not least because the character is such a departure from everything he has done before." A.O. Scott of the New York Times wrote: "The actors do what they can to import some of the texture of life into a project that is overly preoccupied with the idea of life, but the mannered self-consciousness of the script and the direction keeps flattening them into types."

The cast also includes: Ryan Donowho (Carlton Morrow), Asia Vieira (Emily), Quancetia Hamilton (Dancing Party Guest), Jeff J. J. Authors (Frank), Lisa Merchant (Frank's Date), Ron Lea (Burt Morrow), Michael Mayer (Jonathan's Co-Worker), Barna Moricz (Wes), Virginia Reh (Woman at Home Cafe), Joshua Close (Reiner), and Wendy Crewson (Isabel Morrow). Michael Cunningham wrote the screenplay based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Hours". Duncan Sheik composed the original music, and the soundtrack includes songs by Laura Nyro, Leonard Cohen, and Dusty Springfield. Michael Mayer directed.

Le Ciel sur la tête (2006)

Jérémy (Arnaud Binard) is a 30 year-old who has always excelled at everything and has just been promoted to an executive position at the bank where he works. His left wing petit bourgeois parents regard him as a golden child. They do not know that he is gay--in fact, the only member of the family that knows is his younger brother, Robin (Olivier Guéritée). One morning Jérémy stops at his parents' home for Sunday Brunch and tells them he is moving into a new house with his older, long-term boyfriend. Things heat up and Jérémy's folks who have always thought of themselves as liberals do not take the news well. Each of the parents accuses the other of knowing about their son and not telling.

They want to find out what caused Jérémy to be gay, and embark on a comical quest to find out what caused Jérémy's homosexuality. Rosine (Charlotte de Turckheim), Jeremy's mom, goes to a co-worker for advice and Guy (Bernard Le Coq), his dad, talks to his tennis buddies from whom he gets a few answers. New drama arises from the entire situation and the parents take out their frustrations on the younger son, who is hauled into the spotlight. Robin is elated as he is no longer the black sheep of the family. Will this family ever be the same after the shocking news?

The story is about a son coming out to his parents and them coping with it, with the focus more on the relationship of the parents. As the parents say, it could have been worse: Jérémy could have been in a car crash, have an orphan disease, cancer, or died in a terrorist attack. The parents' reaction to the fact their eldest and most beloved son is gay moves towards acceptance because they realize he is not so different. This quirky, delightful, and original TV movie features great performances and solid writing that avoids almost all the possible clichés of the genre. There is a little bit of everything: slapstick, comic situations, odd secondary characters, many unexpected but comical surprises, and quite original monologues and dialogues. Nicolas Mercier wrote the screenplay, and Régis Musset directed. In French with English Subtitles. The English title is "Times Have Been Better".

29th & Gay (2005)

James Sanchez (James Vásquez) is a 29 year-old gay man who feels he's reached a dead end in his life. Quiet, shy, balding, slightly paunchy, struggling to make it as an actor and find romance in Hollywood, he suffers an emotional crisis as he approaches his 30th birthday. His best friend Roxy (Nicole Marcks), an actress-turned-activist, struggles to show him there's life beyond the glitz of the disco ball, while his other friend Brandon (David McBean), one of those gay boys comfortable with his sexuality, works on getting James to at least talk to a boy. In his long journey through the film to find a boyfriend, he stumbles into many different guys. Most of them are from cheap sleazy gay bars. He attempts to find a man online, which leads him to Mike (Kurt Norby). They soon go on a date, which seems to be perfect, but James is never called back.

Throughout his relationship troubles, he also deals with his parents (Annie Hinton and James Synjyn) who try to be accepting, a lack of a job, a lack of inspiration for his talents as an actor, and his lack of confidence to approach the man he wants most: Andy (Mike Doyle) who is a server at a coffee house down the street. When around Andy, James loses control and becomes sloppy and ill at ease. After going through friendship troubles, depressing moments, and losing his apartment's electricity, he struggles his way back into life by getting an acting job and perhaps finding the man of his dreams. Feeling out of place in the world of circuit boys, caught between his Hispanic-American heritage and being gay, we watch James find his place in the world, realizing that life is in the journey, not the destination.

This sweet, charming, warm, and realistic romantic comedy is a small movie with a lot to say with wit and humor. The plot is nothing new, it's kind of an anti-"Queer As Folk", something that the average gay man can relate to. It's not without its faults, with the cute "street sign" introductions to each scene, frantic rewind flashbacks, and the MTV-style quick-cut film editing. But it delivers a good solid story with some stand-out acting without anyone getting naked. There is a hilarious scene between Sanchez and an HIV testing nurse (Kali Rocha). The DVD has deleted scenes, outtakes, trailers and a scene with two of the actors having their palms read by one of the extras. John Avila composed the music, James Vasquez wrote the screenplay, and Carrie Preston directed.

F. est un salaud (1998)

Clean-cut 16 year-old Beni (Vincent Branchet) is a Zurich high school student looking for a better life. That opportunity comes when he goes to a rock concert where he falls madly in love with Fögi (Frédéric Andrau), the handsome gay lead singer of "The Minks". The 26 year-old Fögi is also attracted to the cute youth. He hires him as a roadie and the two begin a wild sex affair that turns into love and devotion for Beni, but soon wears off for the jaded and bored Fögi. Beni is caught in a terrible situation where drug addiction comes into play. Beni, willing victim for his first love, is emotionally eaten alive by his slavish devotion, lust and eventual servitude to the increasingly indifferent Fögi.

The two stay together, but soon sink into alienation, drug addiction and self destruction. Sexual abuse follows as Fögi plays S & M games with Beni and eventually forces him into prostitution to finance his heroin habit. When "The Minks" start running out of gas, Fögi gets into conflicts with some other band members and decides to take a trip to Lebanon to get hashish for dealing. Beni feels lonely and lets himself be picked up by a psychiatrist. When Fögi returns, Beni is forgiven, but it gives Fögi an idea of how he can make money by renting out Beni. The teen must decide to venture into the dark inevitability with his love or jump off.

"F. est un salaud" chronicles the life span of a gay relationship and is quite complex. It captures the romantic, boldly explicit, honest details of two men inextricably intertwined to each other. The early sex scenes are tender and erotic without ever being pornographic, among the most sensual in a gay film. There's a lot of nudity and a lot of bed sex. One of the best scenes in the movie isn't in bed, isn't even overtly sexual, and both men are fully clothed. They're outside, walking together on a hill, enjoying a beautiful afternoon, just sharing their delight in being together. But their joy is drug-enhanced. The two leads deliver great performances, and all the supporting performers are good too, particularly Urs Peter Halter as Fögi's sweet bandmate Töbe, who may be in love with Fögi also.

This compelling Swiss film is electrifying, tender, gentle, and beautiful. Viewers comments are uniformly very favorable, such as, "I realized about halfway through that I was watching one of the greatest love stories ever filmed," and "I've never seen a better performance by any actor in any movie, ever." Rainer Lingk composed the original music. There are also songs from The Velvet Underground and Patti Smith. Marcel Gisler and Rudolf Nadler wrote the screenplay based on Martin Frank's novel. Marcel Gisler directed. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "Fögi is a Bastard".

Los Novios búlgaros (2003)

Gay Madrid lawyer Daniel (Fernando Guillén Cuervo) is a 40 year-old wealthy, spoiled, and attractive businessman who falls for 23 year-old Kyril (Dritan Biba), a hunky, muscular, sexy Bulgarian. Daniel frequents the Madrid party scene surrounding himself with a bunch of gay men who constantly camp it up, swoon over the Bulgarian hunks, and talk about their latest boyfriends. Kyril is looking for a wealthy sugar daddy, someone who will give him money and presents, and also "fix his papers" so that he can stay in Spain. He targets Daniel and after a night of hot sweaty sex, Daniel becomes hooked regardless of the fact that Kyril has a fiancée. None of Kyril's shortcomings seem to bother Daniel, who invites the Bulgarian into his life, and quickly becomes entangled in his new lover's shady business dealings.

Kyril is obviously hiding something. And Daniel begins to get suspicious when Kyril keeps asking for more money. Soon Daniel is forced to have surreptitious dealings with Eastern European mobsters and is asked to store a suspicious-looking black bag in his apartment. Daniel's emotionally masochistic tendencies become even more outlandish when he allows Kyril's beautiful fiancée Kalina (Anita Sinkovic) to stay, and even accompanies them to Sofia for their wedding while also paying for their trip.

Daniel's obsession with Kyril lands him in all sorts of trouble. Throughout the film he ruminates on the price that one must pay for love. He's part hard-core masochist and part impossible romantic, in love with a man who is a selfish opportunist merely out to make a quick buck by any means, including robbery and smuggling. But the twist is that Daniel is not the exploited, subjugated victim. He willingly chases after other boys, recklessly aids and abets his live-in stud, and even admits to his friends and the viewers that he does it because he can afford it.

This Spanish comedic thriller is seductive, mysterious and surprisingly funny, featuring the Bulgarian mob, bundles of money, and a chunk of uranium. The performances are excellent and totally believable. Romantic and sexual encounters between Daniel and Kyril--which include full frontal nudity--are more realistic than American films, gay or straight. The movie cleverly examines the interplay of sex, power and money with a breezy, almost comical attitude without being overly preachy. There's also social detail, which shows the relationship between the Spanish and the Eastern European immigrants. Dritan Biba as Kyril has sexual charisma and magnetism that helps viewers understand why Daniel becomes enamored with him. Antonio Meliveo composed the music. Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Antonio Hens, and Eloy de la Iglesia wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Eduardo Mendicutti. Eloy de la Iglesia directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The English title is "Bulgarian Lovers".