EJ Moreno sits down with the pair behind Sebastian…
Filmmaker Mikko Mäkelä bursts onto the film scene with his explosive and insightful new queer drama, Sebastian. Led by Ruaridh Mollica in a wonderful performance, the film has easily been one of the must-see projects of the year following its Sundance debut.
Now, the writer/director and the actor behind Sebastian stop by Flickering Myth to join host EJ Moreno for an in-depth conversation. The trio will discuss tackling the hard-hitting subject matter and what inspired such an audacious movie.
Check out the full video interview below, and be sure to follow us on YouTube for more reviews, exclusive interviews, and other video content…
Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life, and the debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach.
Finding himself more comfortable as Sebastian than expected, yet determined to keep his exploits a secret, Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of a delicately balanced double-life. As he confronts conflicting feelings of ecstasy, shame, and exhilarating liberation, Max has to reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a writer’s tool to achieve first-hand authenticity – or whether something more is at stake.
Mikko Makela’s Sebastian opens in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco on August 2nd.
