Les Saints de Kiko

I reviewed this film as part of "The Male Gaze - Three's company" collection which was pretty dire apart from this absolute gem. I'm happy to see it has its own entry so that I can give it a fuller review.

A female painter on assignment from Japan stumbles over a couple of gay guys on the beach and gets closer and closer to them over a period of time. From watching from afar, she finally gets to know the guys and takes inspiration from their deepest moments of intimacy. This interaction leads to changes in her life. She realises that the project she had been sent to work on was ultimately sterile and instead, in defiance of her boss and husband, creates a manga universe from her new muses. These bare bones don't sound promising, I know, but I don't want to leave spoilers.

There was a lot compressed into the time the film runs and it deals with personal and professional growth as well as a sloughing off of inhibitions and societal restrictions, symbolised by the shedding of traditional Japanese dress on her journey to paint the guys once more. Her new freedom is nicely illustrated by the way she dismisses her (perhaps by now ex-) husband in the final scene.

A true gem worth watching as a standalone short.