Head On (1998)

Directed by

Ana Kokkinos

Genre

drama film, LGBTQ-related film

Country

Australia

Runtime

1h 44m

Rated

R 18+

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 64 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A 19-year-old Greek-Australian man in Melbourne struggles with his conservative family background and his homosexual desires. The film follows his restless and self-destructive search for connection over one night.

rawintimateconflictedbleakvisceralurgentunflinching

What happens

Head On is a 1998 Australian LGBT-related romantic drama film directed by Ana Kokkinos, who wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bovell and Mira Robertson. The film is based on the 1995 novel Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas. The film stars Alex Dimitriades, Paul Capsis, Elena Mandalis and Damien Fotiou. The film tells the story of Ari (Dimitriades), a dissolute 19-year-old second generation Greek-Australian in Melbourne. Ari is caught between his conservative Greek background and modern Australia, amid his homosexual desire. The film premiered in May 1998 at the Cannes Film Festival, three months ahead of its Australian premiere. The film gained notoriety upon its release for its sexual explicitness, including a graphic masturbation scene performed by Dimitriades and numerous sex scenes. The film was a commercial success in Australia and received generally positive reviews from critics, with reviewers praising its stark realism, the lead performance by Dimitriades and the uncompromising subject matter. It received nine nominations at the 1998 Australian Film Institute Awards and won 29 awards and accolades in Australia and overseas. Australia's National Film and Sound Archive curator recognises it as a pioneering project in Australian filmmaking: "In terms of iconoclast daring, Head On has no equal in Australian cinema." Continuing that it concludes with the "most beautiful and enigmatic endings of any Australian film." It was Australia's first example of New queer cinema and is regarded as a "landmark piece of Australian queer cinema". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• From the Edge of the City (1998)
• Holding the Man (2015)
• When Love Comes Along (1998)
• My First Summer (2020)
• Praise (1998)
• Boy Erased (2018)
• Pentuphouse (1998)
• Love and Other Catastrophes (1996)