Max is a 25-year-old writer living in London, working for a chic web magazine while also penning his first novel—about queer sex workers—which is already positioning him to be one of the rising voices in the literary world.
Sebastian is one of the male escorts Max is writing about. He’s young, handsome, and has a thing for older men, clients who he meets and arranges nightly hookups with via the internet.
But what Max’s family, his editors, or even his closest friends don’t know that Max is Sebastian, and it’s become clear that leading this secret double life isn’t just for book research.
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By day, Max has to contend with deadlines, competitive colleagues, and meeting the expectations of a publisher eager to sell him as the hot-shot young author everyone’s going to be talking about.
By night, as Sebastian, none of that matters, and he finds a new confidence indulging in others’ desires—clearly liberated from the pressures of who he thinks he’s supposed to be.
As Sebastian’s sexual exploits become fodder for Max’s book, the lines between truth and fiction begin to blur, and the young writer navigates finds himself navigating not just his sexuality, but—for the first time—who he truly wants to be.
However, the more Max’s profile rises, the greater the risk of being recognized by one of his clients. Sooner or later, the walls he’s carefully built up between the two versions of himself are going to have to come crashing down.
From emerging Finnish writer-director Mikko Mäkelä (who previously helmed the 2017 gay romance A Moment In The Reeds), Sebastian is a sensual and soulful drama that tackles not just the transmutability of identity, but also authorship, gay shame, and generation gaps in the queer community.
As Max/Sebastian, Scottish-Italian actor Ruaridh Mollica gives a breakthrough performance that’s clearly only just that start of an exciting career (he’ll soon be seen in HBO’s blockbuster blockbuster satire The Franchise from Veep creator Armando Ianucci), as he puts all of him self—physically and emotionally—on the screen.
Queerty had the chance to chat with Mollica at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and the star shared that working on the film helped him acknowledge and step into his own queerness:
“[It] definitely feels like a journey that I’m still going on,” Mollica said. “And so, for a long time, I knew that I wasn’t straight, but I still felt like I was, and then it was only when I moved to London and had the ability to be myself that I realized, Oh actually, no, I like men as well.’ And that journey—there was a short film I did called Too Rough, and that made me look at my sexuality head on. And the same with Sebastian as well—it made me reflect, and that’s what I think this film is meant to do. From this film, I’m living my true self.”
Related*
Ruaridh Mollica says sex worker drama ‘Sebastian’ helped him understand his queerness
“[With] this film, I’m living my true self.” – “Sebastian’ breakout star Ruaridh Mollica
Sebastian—which also stars Jumanji’s Jonathan Hyde & The Nortman’s Ingvar Sigurdsson as clients Max has distinct connections with—premiered at Sundance back in January, and next heads to the Frameline film festival in San Francisco on June 24 before opening in select theaters on August 2 courtesy of Kino Lorber.
Ahead of the film’s U.S. release this summer, check out its first official trailer below:
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Vince
Looks good.
someplace
This was a good movie. Do recommend.