After the first collection, Men on the Edge, and the second collection, Docs From Around the World, Walk This Way presents its third selection of films for 2016. The VOD distribution programme, which brings films to platforms such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Filmin, Flimmit, Universciné and more, has released a delightful series of Unexpected Love Stories – films that reinvent romance in a fresh new way.
The latest film by one of the most unique filmmakers in Italian cinema, Ferzan Ozpetek, sends the viewer a warning with its title: Fasten Your Seatbelt. The story follows Elena (Kasia Smutniak) and Antonio (Francesco Arca), two star-crossed lovers who have nothing in common (different personalities, life choices, social circles), except for one thing: they are both instinctively attracted to each other. Ozpetek’s film is a modern rom-com on sexuality and love filled with sexy people … and sexy storytelling. The film is available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
From a colder country further north, Finland, comes Things We Do For Love. Matti Ijäs’ film is a very Nordic love story, peppered with awkward situations, quirky nudity and deadpan humour, about the romance between Vaarala (Sampo Sarkola) and Ansa (Kristi Kosonen). The former is a reserved romantic photographer who takes pictures of empty park benches, and the latter, a woman prone to impulsiveness and impetuousness – together, they try to overcome their problems as outcasts. The film is available in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Scandinavia digs deeper into the world of romance in With Every Heartbeat, the acclaimed film by Alexandre-Thérèse Keining, who is currently on the festival circuit with her latest film Girls Lost. Adultery, heterosexuality and homosexuality come together in a charming way as a young engaged woman finds herself caught up in an affair with her stepmother’s lesbian daughter. The film, starring Ruth Vega Fernandez, Liv Mjönes and Krister Henriksson, is available in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Slovakia.
Sweden is also the setting of the love story between Ida (Anna Åström) and Krister (Gustaf Skarsgård), which director Mani Maserrat Agah plunges us into in Us, the depiction of a relationship between two people who are madly in love, caught up in a cycle of passion and abuse, and who end up in a problematic impasse when their tricky situation leads to catastrophic consequences. The film is available to viewers in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
Lastly, a touch of German romance comes from Doris Dörrie’s Bliss. Two young people in Berlin, a refugee (Alba Rohrwacher, the current it actress in Italy, who is already well-established in the rest of Europe) and a homeless punk (Vinzenz Kiefer) forge an unexpected relationship. Dörrie, the director of award-winning Cherry Blossoms, brings us a heartfelt portrait of love in Berlin’s underground. Viewers from Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom are able to watch the film.
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