‘Night Stage’ review: Sexy queer drama from Brazil has thematic smarts to match

Dirs/scr: Felipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon. Brazil. 2025. 117mins

In Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, a promising theatre actor and a rising star of local politics connect via a same-sex hookup app for what’s supposed to be a one night stand, only to discover that their shared love for possible discovery intensifies their rapport. For their third feature, writer-directors Felipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon (Seashore, Hard Paint) explore how queer people often only feel able to be authentically themselves if they don’t live in the public eye. For those that do (or want to), it’s basically mandatory to suppress any hint of their sexual proclivities.

A smart drama about the insane price that a queer person has to pay to attain a level of success in the public eye

Though the screenplay is occassionally a bit schematic, Night Stage is a sexy drama with thematic smarts to match. It premieres in Berlin’s Panorama, and should see interest from festivals and distributors beyond the usual queer suspects. 

The open-faced Matias (Gabriel Faryas) and tenebrous Fabio (Henrique Barreira) are roommates and fellow actors in a new theatre work. Notably, their characters are the last two standing at the end of the final act, with one having to force the other off a ledge before declaiming the triumphant closing monologue. To keep things fresh, the director (Larissa Sanguiné) insists that, each night, they should determine who gets the other one off the ledge and delivers the final speech. (No points for guessing this will play a pivotal role later on, when the stakes are raised, in one of the few instances in which a dramatic setup feels a bit laboured.) 

When Fabio is invited to a casting for a national TV series, the ambitious Matias decides to worm his way into the event, even though he’s been explicitly ignored by the casting director (Kaya Rodrigues). This Eve Harrington move pays off as he finally lands the lead. That’s great news, except that the producers expect him to clean up his social media and basically hide his queer identity — lived very much out in the open in his provincial theatre bubble — so he will be palatable to a nation-wide audience brought up on telenovelas. 

In parallel, the dreadlocked cutie has a nighttime hookup with the hunky, bearded redhead Rafael (Cirillo Luna), who already insists on being as discreet as possible. The reason for this emerges only later, when Matias realises Rafael is a squeaky-clean political candidate not only running for mayor, but likely to win. Though it should have been a one night stand, both get hooked on each other when they realise they like the danger of discovery associated with sex in public places. But as their careers take off, this becomes increasingly risky.

What’s both fascinating and intelligent about Night Stage is that the film’s dramatic tension doesn’t only rely on the possible discovery of their secret. While the film has clear elements of the thriller genre and revenge movies, it is also a smart drama about the insane price that a queer person has to pay to attain a level of success in the public eye. “People don’t necessarily care about others being gay anymore,” one of the characters says, “but having sex in public is a different matter.” But what if, Matzembacher and Reolon wonder, these two elements are inextricably linked? What if the subversive streak in being queer is perhaps even more important than the gender of the person you are sleeping with? 

Cinematographer Luciana Baseggio (Fogaréu) captures the characters’ agony and ecstasy in gorgeous closeups but it’s her widescreen tableaux that really showcase the directors’ skills in terms of their mise-en-scene. Music choices and editing feel thoroughly contemporary. Cast is appealing and chosen with an ironic wink, as Faryas is a relative newcomer and it’s Luna who is known for his work in TV.