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The section that helps the audience experience diverse perspectives of many countries and peoples through the films created beyond Asia

SIPFF’s World PRIDE Section selects and screens popular and quality films outside of Asia. This year’s World PRIDE Section also chose great films presenting diverse issues the sexual minorities with diverse history and cultures face, along with their life stories, and the issues these stories cast. Specifically, the films presenting the intrinsic color of each country stand out. 

<In Bed> directed by Nitzan Gilady is released at 2023 SIPFF as Asian premier. The film presents the story of the main characters, enjoying the gay pride parade, hide themselves from the sudden shooting, and spend the night filled with sex, drugs, and horror. The film is sex- and drug-themed with bold direction and acting, and it successfully shows how Tel Aviv, the city in Israel, plays the significant role of a haven, aside from its sociocultural influence, for the sexual minorities in the Middle East. 

<The Damned Don’t Cry> directed by Fyzal Boulifa unfolds the story of the uncertain reality and future of a teenage gay son, living with his mother who is a sex worker. The audience cannot help feeling sympathy and affection toward the characters who embrace each other, surpassing the feelings of love and hatred. The film casts diverse issues in contemporary society by capturing the image of a homosexual family. Another recommended film by SIPFF’s programmers is <Who Am I Not> directed by Tünde Skovrán. The film presents the story of the main character who won at a beauty pageant in South Africa, realizing that she is intersexual and experiencing identity crisis, as the format of a documentary film. Thanks to the help from the intersex activist, she starts to find her own identity, but she experiences the contradiction between the sex that is appeared in public, and her own sexual identity. The audience who wants to understand and watch films about intersexual people should definitely watch it.

If you like queer historical film, you should look forward to watching <Luise> directed by Matthias Luthardt. Getting great reviews at this year’s IFFR (International Film Festival of Rotterdamse), the film describes the story of two women living together alone in the farm in Alsace, France, in the summer of 1918. As a young German deserter shows up between them, the new relationship among the three, filled with love, competition, and hatred, blossoms. The regional background of the film, actually located between France and Germany, has been a part of France or Germany throughout the history. The directing skill of creating tension at the politically imperforate place stands out.  

The audience also can meet diverse genres of films from numerous countries, including documentary films and animations. The distinctive stories of the sexual minorities in the world makes SIPFF’s World PRIDE Section more colorful.