Welcome to St. Sebastian Academy, the all-male boarding school where homosexuality is the norm and, when wrestling gets intimate, nobody bats an eye.
The school is the setting for a brand-new film from Swedish director Ylva Forner called The Schoolmaster Games, which is said to be an homage to high school dramas, ’90s boy bands, and, naturally, adult erotic films. But even in this so-called “queer utopia,” things are far from perfect.
The ensemble piece introduces us to a number of students and faculty, all dealing with their own thorny/horny issues. On one end, there’s a group of young friends whose preparation for the annual Winter Procession threatens to tear them apart, with lust and jealousy driving wedges between this tight-knit circle.
Elsewhere, the schoolmaster (Johan Ehn) is engaged in a BDSM-heavy affair with one of his students, but his insatiable appetite gets the best of him as he finds himself haunted by memories of past traumas.
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Existing just beyond our reality, The Schoolmaster Games doesn’t play by the rules of a conventional narrative, pausing for prolonged wrestling makeout sessions, musical moments, and fourth wall breaking. And, as the official trailer makes clear, the film makes plenty of time for butts, too.
But beneath all the homoeroticism, The Schoolmaster Games has something to say about the generation gap between the younger generation and gays of a certain age. In the clip, an older gentleman comments on the vapidity of “these new guys,” who he views as much more free and fearless than he was ever allowed to be. “We thought we were building a sanctuary, but we’ve created a h*ll.”
That intergenerational disconnect is a fascinating theme to explore, and we’re certainly not mad filmmaker Forner chose to do so in the mold of an eye-popping queer exploitation drama.
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In fact, that’s why Austin’s 35th Prism Film Festival has decided to program The Schoolmaster Games under its “queerzploitation” banner—part of a series of films they describe as a “grab bag of killers and kinks.”
The feature will make its North American premiere at aGLIFF’s (a.k.a the “All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival”) annual event, next Thursday on August 25.
For more information on the film and festival, head to the Prism site here. Below, you can watch an extended clip from the The Schoolmaster Games, which features plenty of singlet-on-singlet action.
scotty
helix academy. time for another dust-off.
bachy
Ugh! That final wrestling scene toggled my switch….
mz.sam
Just because it’s a gay-themed film with shirtless men does not make a good, let alone watchable film.
Diplomat
I want to see what goes down with the school master. Great trailer.
Kangol2
Yet again, another film involving teens. I mean, can none of these filmmakers that Queerty highlights focus on the world of ADULT LGBTQ people? I understand that films addressing the experiences of young LBGTQ are necessary but it starts to look like infantilism when so few films can imagine and depict what life is like for mature, LGBTQ adults, especially ones who aren’t super-rich or living in major metro areas, etc.
ylvaforner
I hope you will give this a try then! It’s actually a story about The Schoolmaster (in his 50s) wrestling with a new era that he doesn’t know if he can ever belong to. And about Frank (also in his 50s) who hates the young carefree generation of queer men that he can’t relate to. Maybe it actually addresses a lot of what your saying, that all queer culture focus on the young. Looking forward to hearing what you think ?