Straitlaced optometrist Weichung is finding the typical married life difficult, as his wife, Feng, unfulfilled by her white‐walled office job and spurred on by her mother, pushes him for a second child. Then he bumps into an old friend from his gay past, setting off an unexpected array of dormant emotions. Meanwhile, his sister Mandy flees her sad sack fiancé San‐San, coping via comfort food and the fantastical appearance of a soap opera star on her couch. Arvin Chen’s sophomore feature is a fresh and playful comedy about the brave fronts put forward in the search for a satisfying family life and job. Whimsy is never far from this story, both through the appropriately sappy soundtrack and several dream‐like touches: not just a soap opera star, but one character whose retirement is symbolized by his magical floating away on an umbrella and a breakout karaoke sequence reinforced by the title Shirelles song. Outstanding performances by Richie Ren and singer Mavis Fan as the central married couple help Chen find a true emotional core, especially in the heartrending moment when Feng realizes the truth about her husband’s dalliances, inspiring a charming look at what happens in a traditional society when you seek a big change.

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17 year old Mike has always been kind of a outcast, never quite on time, never knowing quite the right thing to say. He’s doing his best just to survive high school. But all that changes when a new kid arrives in his class, William. And when the two of them are immediately thrust together to complete an English class assignment, Mike sees his chance to become closer to the quiet, enigmatic Will. As the two spend more time together under the auspices of making a ‘monster movie’ version of Romeo & Juliet, they begin to realise that their feelings towards one another may be more powerful than they’d anticipated. But like the two main characters in the greatest love story ever told, Mike and Will seem pre‐destined to be kept apart, by their respective dysfunctional families, by their classmates, and by their own sexual confusion. Can their love overcome all obstacles? Or, like the Shakespearian monsters that inhabit their school project, are they fated to spend their existence haunted and alone? A coming‐out and coming‐of‐age drama firmly set in the 1990’s, MONSTER PIES is a snapshot in time, a moving teen romance unafraid to tackle the contradictions and complexities of the male adolescent heart and mind. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

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Adam is a Catholic priest who discovered his calling as a servant of God at the relatively late age of 21. He now lives in a village in rural Poland where he works with teenagers with behavioural problems who fight and yell abuse. He declines the advances of a young blonde named Ewa, saying he is already spoken for. However, celibacy is not the only reason for his rejection. Adam knows that he desires men and that his embrace of the priesthood has been a flight from his own sexuality. When he meets Łukasz, the strange and taciturn son of a simple rural family, Adam's self‐imposed abstinence becomes a heavy burden. Małgośka Szumowska’s visually powerful film, charged with striking imagery from Christ’s Passion, dares to broach the still taboo topic of homosexuality in the priesthood. Confronted with his ‘forbidden’ desires, her protagonist experiences both moments of bliss and utter despair. A film about confused emotions, repression and loneliness – and the possibility of perhaps finding oneself after all.

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