Stand

Stand is a pitch perfect hybrid of Scandi-noir atmospherics, homo social realism, the butterfly effect and a killer narrative double bluff, and a surveillance-heavy decoding of a very now gay hate crime that plays out with blunt, voyeuristic force.
Writer/director Jonathan Taïeb economically sketches a casually intimate queer domesticity and a contemporary Russian socio-political milieu somewhat at odds. The script forensically dissects the fallout from a split second decision not to intervene in an act of violence and delineates and deconstructs the threats from both without and within that are effectively catalysed by central couple Anton and Vlad's divergent fight and flight responses.
David Branigan, Melbourne Queer Film Festival