Shall I Compare You To A Summer's Day? (BASHTAALAK SA’AT)

Once upon a time there were love stories, as told by Scheherazade, Shakespeare, or pop songs. But when a group of gay men begin to narrate and stage their own versions of love tales, the same story unravels into several other stories. Shall I Compare You is an alternative fable to a heteronormative romance with images as irreverent as they are saturated with desire. Lovers ask each other about threesomes, Grindr contacts and past dates. Pop clichés are twisted, heartache permeates the men’s singing, and poems by Wadih Saadeh are read out while a lover’s dirty laundry is aired. Egyptian director Hassan turns his first feature film into a playful and bold queer musical statement.

SCREENED WITH SHORT FILM:
A KING, GAZING AT THE SEA (LE ROI QUI CONTEMPLAIT LA MER)
Directed by Jean-Sébastien Chauvin, France, In French with English subtitles, 24 minutes
Paul lands in a Mediterranean seaside resort. He is enjoying a few moments by the sea, when his gaze is captured by the arrival of a muscular man with a tanned complexion. This stranger becomes his obsession, fueling a destabilizing desire."