The story of Dirty Lines starts in 1987’s Amsterdam, at a time when Dutch society was changing rapidly. Psychology student Marly Salomon takes on a side job working for a brand new firm: Teledutch – a company started by two brothers, Frank and Ramon Stigter, who established Europe’s first erotic telephone lines. Frank and Ramon become rich overnight and Marly finds herself immersed in this wild and rapid transformation. The final years of the Cold War sparked a sense of hope and inspired a new generation to celebrate life to its fullest. Amsterdam became the center of that cultural revolution with a radically new form of music: house and a new love drug: XTC. The erotic phone lines offer the opportunity to experience anonymous sex in a new way, changing the morality of its consumers, but also very much the people creating it.

Two’s company, three’s allowed? From family disputes and unexpected babysitting duties to uncomfortable high school memories, manga drawing and friendships pushed to the next level – the Male Gaze series lifts the lid on six very different gay relationships and encounters. When two become three and outsiders enter the fray, what are the group dynamics at play? The short films are: Golden Boys (2017); In Beating Cells [In Pocheden Zellen] (2017); The Middle of a Lake [Le milieu d’un lac] (2017); Gilles (2016); Kiko’s Saints [Les saints de Kiko] (2019); With Thelma [Avec Thelma] (2017).

The basic story of a young criminal not quite living up to his won ideals of “not to give a damn” sidesteps out of his criminal career while dragging his younger brother into it, could have been interesting. Unfortunately the implementation is simply not good enough. As so often with Danish movies, there is little appreciation for detail thus leaving us with hoodlums talking like they’ve done time at a business academy rather than a prison. Dialects completely out of here and idiosyncratic bikers without bikes or even character for that matter. An ever accelerating surrealism towards the end doesn’t help to clear the slow pace of this film but it does give a glimpse of what the story could have unfolded to become.