Cicada

This 2021 American film, directed by Matthew Fifer with Kieran Mulcare, follows Ben, who has recently come out as bisexual. A summer in New York turns into a fast-moving relationship with Sam, and neither man has told the other about his past. The subject is trauma surfacing alongside intimacy. What happened to Ben in childhood returns through a court case running in the background; the narrative gives this not in a scene of disclosure but in scattered pieces. Fifer also plays the lead and the screenplay draws on his own life. The budget is low, the camera handheld and some of the dialogue improvised. Sheldon D. Brown plays opposite him. Who it's for: those who follow low-budget American independent cinema and queer relationship films. Who it's not for: viewers for whom childhood abuse would sit heavily; the film treats it indirectly but continuously.