Eastern Boys (2014)

Thanks to the pen and direction of Robin Campillo, Yanks in the States can yank themselves while watching Eastern Boys (2013). Not to be confused with the British-Canadian flick Eastern Promises (2007) starring Viggo Mortensen, this French film follows the hush hush world of male prostitution and extortion in the Gare du Nord train station in Paris. It is here that a middle-aged man named Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) meets a young Ukrainian immigrant called Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), whom he thinks is just another boy for rent. Little does Daniel realize that he’s just fallen into a cleverly set trap designed to capture men like himself and threaten to expose their secret to the world. In other words, these Eastern Boys are certainly not what they seem! Despite the almost complete lack of skin, the film still manages to pack in a bunch of gay sex scenes, many of them featuring Monsieur Rabourdin and Monsieur Emelyanov. The only actual nudity in this pic comes when we get a brief glimpse of Kirill’s buns as Olivier goes down on him. Ooh la la! Perhaps that’s why the movie was acclaimed by the critics. In fact, it received the Best International Film Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and took home the Horizons Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. If that’s not impressive enough, Eastern Boys won the Kraków Film Award at the International Festival of Independent Cinema PKO Off Camera. Plus, it earned a statuette in Mr. Man’s pants!