THE MAN I LOVE

USA, FRANCE | 2026 | COLOR | DCP | 95’ | ENGLISH

How was it to live, love, and die in 1980s New York? Ira Sachs answers with one of the finest films of his filmography, giving Rami Malek ("Bohemian Rhapsody") the opportunity to prove his acting worth in the role of a charismatic theatrical performer who refuses to surrender his brilliance to the shadow of a relentless illness, turning every remaining heartbeat into an act of creation and love. The director pens a sensual ode to companionship and loss, fragile and Dionysian, even as it is set against the twilight of an era. The film brims with life, measuring different emotional temperatures in each scene, attuning to the joys and sorrows of communities bound ever closer by danger and drawing inspiration from a challenging time, the tragedies of which never made anyone lose hope. Unpretentiously spare in its narration, free of unnecessary explanations and superfluous remarks about the hows and whys of the people we see in it, flooded with wonderful musical choices with a dramatic role, Sachs's elegiac creation manages to immerse the viewer in an atmosphere, a reality, a condition of life, and a lost moment in time. Just like its protagonist. Thodoris Karamanolis

DIRECTOR: Ira Sachs
SCREENWRITERS: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias
DoP: Josée Deshaies
EDITOR: Affonso Gonçalves
PRINCIPAL CAST: Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Luther Ford

IRA SACHS

Acclaimed American independent filmmaker and screenwriter known for his intimate character studies on love, family, and queer identity (b. 1965). He studied film at Yale University. He is the founder of Queer|Art, a non-profit organization supporting LGBTQ+ artists. 

FILMOGRAPHY
2026 The Man I Love
2025 Peter Hujar’s Day
2023 Passages
2019 Frankie
2016 Little Men
2014 Love Is Strange
2012 Keep the Lights On
2007 Married Life
2005 Forty Shades of Blue
1996 The Delta