German Kink Drama ‘Drifter’ To Premiere At Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Image: Supplied MQFF
The Queer German drama, Drifter, is premiering in Australia at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
Premiering in Melbourne on November 17, Drifter debuted in February at the Berlin International Film Festival. Directed by Hannes Hirsch (Beach Boy) and co-written by Hirsch and River Matzke, Drifter is the director’s debut feature.
‘Dumped In A City That’s All About Letting It All Hang Loose’
According to the synopsis, “Twenty-something Berliner Mortiz (Lorenz Hochhuth) wants to settle down and go for bike rides with his boyfriend, but it’s this attempt at emotional connection that precipitates him getting dumped in a city that’s all about letting it all hang loose. And so he surrenders, drifting into the darkest corners of techno-booming clubs where anything goes sexually, and both moral hectoring and the gender binary are hurled through blacked-out windows.”
Drifter stars Lorenz Hochhuth (In Your Dreams), Cino Djavid (Franky Five Star), Gustav Schmidt (Milk & Honey), Marie Tragousti (Naked Animals), Oscar Hoppe (All The Light We Cannot See), Cat Jugravu (We Are Dancers), Aviran Edri (Tatort), and Alexandre Karim Howard.
‘Very Important To Show Sex How I Think It Can Be’
According to The Queer Review, “It’s in the presentation of the fluid world of sex that Drifter really succeeds. Opening Moritz’s eyes to a complex but compassionate world of bodily pleasures where there is little judgement other than “are you into it or not”, the people he meets paint a larger tapestry of human sexuality than we normally see on screen.”
Talking about this depiction of sex, Hirsch told British Film Institute in March, “There are many films that show gay sex in a wrong way, how it doesn’t work technically. For me as a gay man, it’s very important to show sex how I think it can be.
Hirsch continued, “For example, Noah – the more responsible guy in the middle of the film – was meant to be like a guy who was working in culture, who was reading books; he’s very reflective and very against drugs. But then when he’s having sex with Moritz, he’s bringing this little bottle of poppers.
“The idea came from the actors, and it makes so much sense because this is how gay people but also straight people live now.”
The Melbourne Queer Film Festival goes from November 9 – 19.
