Award-winning gay-themed feature film Albatross now streaming

First time writer-director Myles Yaksich’s Albatross has now dropped on all major VOD platforms (including Apple iTunes & Amazon) for rent and own on North American digital HD internet and satellite platforms. 

Part period melodrama, part psychological thriller, Albatross packs a punch and is thoroughly original. With shades of Carol, except for gay men, and a touch of Get Out, except set in 1959, the film is dark, dramatic, and more than a little twisted. Repressing sexuality is never a good idea, but America in the 1950s was in the throes of stamping out all differences and operating in a class-conscious and club-like way.

This thoughtfully-scripted thriller uses flashback, philosophy, and unethical psychoanalysis to show how the pursuit of authentic identity, whether it be sexual orientation, gender or race, needs to be free otherwise it becomes the proverbial albatross around the neck—the dead weight that dooms the subject and those around him.

Synopsis: Worlds collide at an awkward dinner party in 1959 New England. After moving to a new town, Elizabeth and Thomas Miller are at a crossroad; they are childless, he’s an unpublished writer and she’s tired of cutting checks to keep them afloat. Thomas’ work suffers to the point that his publisher wants him to ditch his novel about the Black experience to write a more commercially viable harlequin romance.

Carol and Dr. Lloyd Burke have built an imposing façade glorifying the societal ideals of the era; an impressive home, prominent role at the country club, and son studying medicine. But, behind closed doors, the couple’s haunted by the cracks in their relationship and his use of controversial psychiatric techniques. Albatross is riddled with opposing philosophical perspectives, forcing the characters to question the stability of their respective relationships and consider how the past or future will continue to nurture or deteriorate them. Ultimately, tables are turned, secrets revealed, and we’re left questioning who really pulls the strings in this game of chess.

This is a strong debut from Yaksich and he is assisted by a talented and award-winning team. Shot in Canada and featuring a talented ensemble cast of locals, Albatross borrows from cinema classics such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and yet weaves in all the tensions of today’s anxieties over race and the reignited Right wing which would have us all go back to the segregation and repression of the ’50s.

And what a pleasure to watch a film that contains modern themes and concerns —and yet there isn’t a cell phone or laptop in sight! These New England folks discuss art, read Shakespeare’s sonnets, listen to gramophone records, eat figs, drink wine, smoke weed, take drugs, and play twisted mind games.

Writer-director Yaksich noted: “Conceptually, I’m fascinated by the ways we cope with challenging experiences to either grow or stagnate. Social media’s made it too easy to shut the door, block an account, or add more filters to categorize others as either fitting within or outside of our own bubble.”

Find out more about the movie here: www.albatross-thefilm.com