Lucio Castro’s poignant and sexy romance will break your heart and mend it all at once.
In his alluring debut feature, Lucio Castro offers both a sun-soaked European travelogue and an epic, decades-spanning romance. When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories—and maybe even their destinies?
Castro deliberately parses out mystery after mystery, leading the audience on a journey of discovery as the two leading men discover themselves and each other. With sumptuous lensing of a Barcelona summertime and tangible chemistry between the actors, END OF THE CENTURY is a love story that echoes across time.
Reviews
“THE BEST GAY FILM OF THE YEAR.”
– Jude Dry, IndieWire
“Poetic. Ambitious. Ambiguous… A promising first feature.”
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
“a gorgeous examination of what 21st century relationships can look like.”
– Manuel Betancourt, Remezcla
“a sublimely haunting experience… Lucio Castro’s debut feels like a gay spin on Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy, all distilled into a single film.”
– Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
“An absolutely hypnotic romance… Pure magic.”
– Gary Kramer, San Francisco Bay Times
“A hell of a debut… a profoundly moving, intensely quiet romance drama.”
– Joshua Brunsting, Criterion Cast
“End of the Century is at its most intense, and sexiest, when it’s also at its most unknowable.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
“An erotic, emotional imagining of a Grindr hookup as memory palace.”
– Keith Uhlich, The Hollywood Reporter
