The Summer With Carmen

‘Impossibly handsome Greek men hanging out at the naked gay beach’ is the short version of this movie blurb, but in fact The Summer with Carmen is also a clever treatise on the tribulations of queer filmmaking, dating and breakups, and platonic gay friendship. 

Demosthenes (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) plays the perfectly sculpted sexy single hunk drifting through his days of hook-ups, hangouts and dog-sitting. Whilst having philosophical chats on the hot beach with his filmmaker pal Nikitas (Andreas Labropoulos), the friends recount the trials of the previous summer that will soon form the film plot for Nikitas’ feature debut. 

This meta-fiction approach to the film creates a playfully narcissist self-reflection befitting an ancient Greek drama and riffing on a familiar type of gay self-obsession with very charming results. Funny, original, and oh so hot, pour yourself a drink and get your flights booked for The Summer With Carmen.

Dir. Zacharias Mavroeidis 

Writers: Fondas Chalatsis, Zacharias Mavroeidis 

Producer: Ioanna Bolomyti

Greece/ 2023 

1hr 46m

The Pansy of Pickadee Pre feature short

The Dressmaker star Roy Barker narrates this bittersweet line-drawn animation that celebrates a brave queer hero while indulging the love of saucy rhyming couplets.

Angus George, Paddy Morahan/ Australia/ 2023/ 8m