Close Encounters on SBS World Movies

Sexy Saturday nights continue as SBS World Movies explores sexuality and desire from diverse perspectives - with tantalising stories of love and lust from around the world.

Close Encounters

L-R: Jumbo, Fidelity, The Wait Source: SBS Movies

The Wait

Saturday 1 October, 10:20pm on SBS World Movies / Now streaming after at SBS On Demand

MA15+
Finland, 2022
Genre: Romance, Drama
Language: Finnish
Director: Aku Louhimies
Starring: Inka Kallén, Aku Hirviniemi, Andrei Alén, Adeliina Arajuuri, Eino Heiskanen
What's it about?
Tells the story of a preacher, his wife and an old friend of the preacher who visits the couple in rural Finland during the summer. While the preacher is happy to see his friend because of the joviality he brings to their household, his wife has more of a romantic interest in mind. Based on the novel by revered Finnish author Juhani Aho, and the first ever carbon negative feature film production.

Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
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A Blast

Saturday 8 October, 9:30pm on SBS World Movies / Now streaming after at SBS On Demand

M
Greece, 2014
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Language: Greek
Director: Syllas Tzoumerkas
Starring: Angeliki Papoulia, Vassilis Doganis, Maria Filini
What's it about?
Running away on the highway, Maria (Dogtooth and The Lobster's Angeliki Papoulia) is alone in her roaring SUV. Behind her, fire and a case full of money. In front of her, the hopeless vastness of the motorway. Only a day before she was a caring mother, a loving wife, a responsible daughter. Today she has gone rogue.
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Ah! The Libido

Saturday 15 October, 9:30pm on SBS World Movies / Now streaming at SBS On Demand

M
France, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Language: French
Director: Michèle Rosier
Starring: Audrey Dana, Claude Degliame, Sarah Grappin, Anna Mihalcea, Olivier Schatzky
What's it about?
In this "Sex and the City"-esque romantic comedy, four female journalists for the French daily newspaper "Libération" make a pact on one of their regular lunch catch ups to satisfy their curiosities and visit a male sex worker - and then meet up again to compare notes.
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Jumbo

Saturday 22 October, 9:25pm on SBS World Movies / Now streaming after at SBS On Demand

MA15+
Belgium, France, Luxembourg, 2020
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Drama, Comedy
Language: French
Director: Zoé Wittock
Starring: Noémie Merlant, Emmanuelle Bercot, Sam Louwyck, Bastien Bouillon, Tracy Dossou
What's it about?
Jeanne (Portrait of a Lady on Fire's Noemie Merlant), a shy young woman, works as a night watchwoman in an amusement park and lives at home with her elderly mother. Her mother is desperate for her to meet a man, but Jeanne prefers to spend her time with the park's newest attraction - Jumbo, the tilt-a-whirl ride. This darkly comic and romantic fantasy-drama was described by IndieWire as "splitting the difference between Terms of Endearment and David Cronenberg’s Crash in a way that’s often sweet and surreal".
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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AT SBS ON DEMAND:

Fidelity

MA15+
Russia, 2019
Genre: Drama
Language: Russian
Director: Nigina Sayfullaeva
Starring: Aleksandr Pal, Evgeniya Gromova, Alexey Agranovich, Marina Vasilyeva
What's it about?
Lena (Gromova) is a talented midwife and gynaecologist, her husband Serezha (Pal) is an actor at a provincial drama theatre. They are close and gentle with each other, but there is no sex. Lena suspects that Serezha has an affair, but she worries quietly and does not reveal her jealousy. Instead of sorting out her relationship with her husband, Lena starts to betray him with chance acquaintances. Gradually Lena’s parallel life gets out of control and changes her original life.
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Lovers

MA15+
France, 2021
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Language: French, English
Director: Nicole Garcia
Starring: Pierre Niney, Stacy Martin, Benoit Magimel, Christophe Montenez, Gregoire Colin
What's it about?
Set in Paris the story follows Lisa (Martin), who, while on vacation with her husband (Niney), rekindles a passionate affair with her ex-boyfriend (Magimel) - one that may lead to murder. Directed by Nicole Garcia (From the Land of the Moon), and described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a slick film noir throwback carried by a trio of strong performances."

Passion

MA15+
USA, 2012
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Language: English
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Karoline Herfurth, Leila Rozario, Ian T. Dickinson
What's it about?
Christine (McAdams) possesses the natural elegance and casual ease associated with one who has a healthy relationship with money and power. She takes particular pleasure in exercising control over her admiring protege Isabelle (Rapace), leading her one step at a time ever deeper into a game of seduction and manipulation, dominance and humiliation. A remake of the 2010 French film Love Crime (starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and Sylvie Testud), directed by Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables).

Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
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The Chambermaid Lynn

M
Germany, 2015
Genre: Drama
Language: German
Director: Ingo Haeb
Starring: Vicky Krieps, Lena Lauzemis, Steffen Münster
What's it about?
In this coming out story with a difference, Lynn (Phantom Thread's Vicky Krieps) - a painfully shy hotel maid with an obsessive-compulsive disorder - voyeuristically watches a guest's encounter with a dominatrix. She then decides to hire the call girl to help her shed her own inhibitions.
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5 min read
Published 4 October 2022 3:24pm
Updated 13 October 2022 2:22pm
By SBS Movies
Source: SBS

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