By: Jack MacNamara, Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Back in September when TLA Releasing dropped the official trailer of director Ivan Cotroneo’s “One Kiss” (2016) which by the way has already garnered an Official Selection at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival, I knew they had a hit on their hands that is sure to capture the hearts of minds of not only our LGBTQ youths but of all genres.
Judging by the synopsis, “One Kiss” (2016) will bring you into a world that many of today’s LGBTQ youth’s fear, abuse, lies an torment in their daily lives.
“Antonio is a star basketball player on his high-school team, but that doesn’t mean he’s popular by any means. Soft-spoken, awkward, and still grieving over his older brother’s death, he’s excluded from his teammates and considered dumb. Blu, who has a reputation for her sexual exploits, defiantly rides her scooter past graffiti labeling her a “slut,” and hurries to the mailbox each afternoon to grab her writer mother’s rejection letters before she sees them.
Lorenzo, new in town as well as newly adopted, relies on his extravagant sense of fashion and elaborate imagination to distract him from the bullies at school who mercilessly tease him for his homosexuality. These three teenagers form a friendship and a means of defense against the closed-minded bullies who constantly berate them, but their closeness to each other eventually comes at a tragic price. Reminiscent of 1960s New Wave forerunners like Truffaut’s Jules et Jim and Godard’s Bande a parte, One Kiss is a story of outsider friendship, the limits of imagination, and the consequence of honesty.”
Cast: Rimau Ritzberger Grillo | Valentina Romani | Leonardo Pazzagli |
Plot Keywords: friendship | bullying | homophobia | gay
Writer and Director: Ivan Cotroneo
Production Co: Indigo Film | Titanus | Lucky Red |
Worldwide Distributors:
– PRO-FUN media Filmverleih (2016) (Germany) (all media)
– PRO-FUN media Filmverleih (2016) (Austria) (all media)
– PRO-FUN media Filmverleih (2016) (Switzerland) (all media)
– Lucky Red (2016) (Italy) (theatrical)
– TLA Releasing (2016) (UK) (all media)
– TLA Releasing (2016) (USA) (all media)
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