Out writer/director/star Yony Leyser’s audacious English-language comedy-drama, “Desire Will Set You Free,” features LGBTQ young adults in contemporary Berlin.
The film, which will screen as part of the Cinedelphia Film Festival at 9:30 p.m. April 14, concerns Ezra (Leyser), a gay Israeli-Palestinian writer who falls for Sasha (Tim Fabian Hoffmann), a Russian male prostitute. But Sasha, who is thinking about becoming a woman, is not really into the relationship. Meanwhile, Ezra’s friend Catharine (Chloe Griffin) is off being non-monogamous, much to the chagrin of her girlfriend, Jayne (Amber Benson).
“Desire Will Set You Free” shifts between realism and surrealism as the characters attend parties and punk concerts and have sex. The film’s anarchic spirit — Catharine’s interest in Nazism, which is meant to be “shocking” — compensates for the film’s amateurish feel. (At times, Leyser seems unsure where to place the camera.) But the depiction of gender-fluid youth comes across, even as Sasha’s cute colleague, Alexandru (Anton Andreew), talks about being gay for pay.
“Desire Will Set You Free” also features cameos by legendary German gay filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim (as Ezra’s agent) and punk performer Nina Hagen.
The Cinedelphia Film Festival takes place at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art, 531 N. 12th St. For more information, visit www.cinedelphiafilmfestival.com.