Be sure to watch our interview with Mikko Mäkelä on Sebastian after this article.
With the massive success of Anora, it seems audiences are finally ready to embrace authentic and honest portrayals of sex work on screen. If you were entranced by the wonderfully chaotic adventures of Ani in Sean Baker’s Brighton Beach-set film, you’ll want to follow the journey of Max in Mikko Mäkelä’s equally honest and raw Sebastian. The film follows 25-year-old aspiring novelist Max, who lives in London and works at a literary magazine during the day while moonlighting as a male escort by night, under the pseudonym Sebastian. What starts out as an experimentation to inspire his novel soon spirals into something more all-consuming.
Playing the titular role is the extraordinary Ruaridh Mollica, who portrays a young man living a double life with exceptional nuance and emotional restraint, although it’s clear there are more complicated feelings brewing beneath the surface of Mollica’s tranquil demeanor. Another noteworthy performance in the film comes from veteran actor Jonathan Hyde, who plays Nicholas, one of Sebastian’s regular clients. The tender interactions between Sebastian and Nicholas give a beating heart to the often sterile nature of sex work, a facet that Mäkelä explores unabashedly.
Sebastian makes it clear that being a sex worker can be demoralizing at times, but what job in the modern gig economy isn’t? The film also cleverly juxtaposes Sebastian’s nighttime interactions with Max’s daytime aspirations as a fledgling writer. When compared to the emotional exhaustion of clawing your way to the top as an ambitious creative, sex work begins to feel less “sell your soul” and more “take control of your own fate.” That’s the important takeaway here: Mäkelä was very conscious in depicting sex work as somethig Max actively chooses, not something he’s forced into as a last resort.
Kino Lorber sat down with Mäkelä to discuss the importance of normalizing not only sex work, but sex in general, in film; the age-old question of “Does life imitate art?”; and what author Bret Easton Ellis, who is a central offscreen character, thinks of the film. Spoiler: He loves it.
Watch our interview with Mikko Mäkelä below:
And stream Sebastian on Kino Film Collection now.
