Hors les murs

According to the director, this is his "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", a film about what happens when a madly-in-love couple is forcibly separated by a bad turn of events. But it's really much more than that.

It's about the power dynamics in a relationship, and how they shift over time. It's about dominance and submission. It's about making choices. It's about freedom or the lack thereof.

What keeps it from being overly ponderous (though it does raise lots of questions) is way it focuses on the specifics of a rather dysfunctional relationship between a needy, waif-like, seemingly helpless young man desperate to be taken care of, and a seemingly more together toughened-by- life older man who at first doesn't take him seriously but then falls hard for his boyish, coquettish charm.

And then they're separated and they and we discover that they're not entirely who they seem to be and everything shifts.

The cinematography is suitably gritty and sharp, while the acting of the two leads is superb. These are very flawed characters but we don't care and we fall in love with them anyway, the way they fall in love with each other.

The ending is realistic and a bit sad, but not tragic. We all come away a little wiser, but just a little, as this is not Hollywood, after all, thank god.

Beyond the Walls is the beautiful, erotic and powerful story of an almost pathologically needy young man named Paulo, his encounters with two much stronger men, and how those experiences change his life.

There are none of the stereotypical characters, florid melodrama and boringly predictable plot clichés that cripple most gay movies. From their initial meeting in a bar, Paulo and Ilir jump quickly into a relationship of such intense passion and tenderness that it makes all other gay movies look like The Love Boat. But from that point on, nothing anybody does fits our Hollywood-conditioned expectations of what these characters ought to do. They all change, but never in ways we expect them to.

The movie is never either predictable or gimmicky, and every scene rings true. Best of all is Matila Malliarakis's astonishing, courageous and brilliant performance as Paulo. Everything about this movie is excellent - the writing, direction, photography, music, and all the actors - but without Malliarakis it would be just a good movie. He makes it spectacular.

One of the best TRUE-Love stories I've seen in movies! The film felt very real, and that's why I ADORED IT!!! Everything was fantastic... From the origin and discovery of love, the heartbreak and then the rebirth of love.

These are the types of movies that make you believe in true-love, and not a far-fetched version of it, a very tangible one.

I truly recommend this feature. I'm really glad that I found it!!! And the script was very good too, the acting was marvelous, that you really believe in them.

:D 10/10.

Definitely worth watching. Creative, funny, sad. It's good that they made one of the guys Albanian. I'm a Croat but we don't often see too many Balkan actors in lgbt movies. I was happy to see that.

What can I say? I watched it because Matilla (Paulo's actor) but I didn't expect that the movie would be this wonderful! (cant help since many gay-theme movies are really plain) I laughed, smiled, and cried a lot. The story isn't the only best thing here because the actors (especially Matilla) have done perfect job. It's sad there's much movie of him around (he's more a TV star I think). This is highly recommended for those who're into gay movie. thought I hate the ending, since its really sad but hey, just watch it! Don't worry, this isn't porn, you wont see and genital here, just a soft romantic gay movie and you wont find awesome gay themed movie like this everyday.