Welby Ings’ ‘Sparrow’ tells the tale of a little boy who is inspired by his war veteran grandfather to stand up to school bullies, while Artemis Anastasiadou’s ‘I Am Mackenzie’ sees a teenager presenting as male but harbouring feelings for their skateboarder friend.
It’s a timely reminder that not every gay man is able to live as their authentic selves and that the Western acceptance of homosexuality still doesn’t extend across the entire globe.įor me, the collection dips a little bit with the two shorts sequenced in the middle. Focusing on the subject of its title, the short takes the form of an interview with Nidahl, a Tunisian gay man who was forced to seek asylum in the Netherlands after publicly fighting for gay rights on a local radio station. The tone shifts drastically for third short ‘Nidahl’ by Bassem Ben Brahim.
