A Dark Tale

Hailed as a masterpiece of 21st century dance, Akram Khan’s Giselle comes to cinemas for the first time with Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo, dancing the role of Giselle, one of a community of migrant workers cast out of their jobs in a condemned garment factory. The classic story of love, betrayal and redemption has been reimagined in this stunning new version, with sets and costumes by Academy-Award winning designer Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), an ‘ominous, gothic’ (The Observer) adaptation of Adolphe Adam’s original score by composer Vincenzo Lamagna and performed by English National Ballet Philharmonic, dramaturgy from Ruth Little and lighting design from Tony Award-winner Mark Henderson. Filmed live at the Liverpool Empire in October 2017, Akram Khan’s Giselle is directed for the screen by Ross MacGibbon.

On a remote Arctic research station, a captive creature (played by the English National Ballet’s charismatic principal dancer Jeffrey Cirio) is unwittingly enlisted into a military program that subjects him to sinister experiments. Amid this turmoil, he finds himself enamoured with a cleaner, the only person who shows him kindness; together, these two outsiders dream of escape from their dystopian surrounds.

Right after marrying Maria, Ciro discovers his wife could have been unfaithful during her bachelorette party. Ciro starts questioning his life choices and even his own identity. But when Maria shows up in the middle of the night, someone else is hiding in Ciro’s bedroom.

In this partial adaptation of poet Karthika Naïr’s award-winning book Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata, an original reworking of the epic Mahabharata, Akram Khan uses kathak and contemporary dance to tell the tale of Amba, a princess abducted on her wedding day and stripped of her honour, who invokes the gods to seek revenge.

A psychologist's longing for family puts a strain on his current relationship, a priest wrestles with his own desires after catching his peers in a moment of intimacy, and a husband has a heated exchange with his wife, while his new partner waits quietly in the bedroom. A tender collection of stories of men torn between two worlds, as the feelings they once buried come rushing back to the surface.

At SHORTSTv, history makes the difference between erotic thrills and good hot movies. So sit back, pour yourself a nice glass of wine and enjoy the sexiest movies on SHORTSTv. Short films included: - It’s Just in My Head (2020) by Marius Gabriel Stancu - Sonntag/ Sundays (2014) by Silvio Gerber - A Kiss Too Many (2023) by Vincenzo Lamagna - Catechism (2019) by Sergio Canneto - Loris Is Fine (2017) by Simone Bozzelli - J’ador (2020) by Simone Bozzelli