Johan is searching. He desires, spends nights with strangers, wakes up alone, browses Grindr and never feels fulfilled. He begins working as a client administrator at Copenhagen’s only queer sauna, Adonis, which gradually becomes both his daily routine and a labyrinth of pleasure. A life once defined by one-night stands, bars and parties begins to shift when he meets William, a transgender man. This encounter awakens Johan from his care- and commitment-free slumber – more than anything, he longs to feel and share genuine closeness.

It is easy to imagine this melancholic, Decameron-like work directed by Xavier Dolan, guiding the audience through the city’s cruising spots, stoking desire in the hot saunas, and greeting the morning with an attempt to forget the night before. By crafting his debut feature as one man’s chronicle of a day in Copenhagen – sparing the viewer from the sense of being a voyeuristic tourist – Broe heals us, inviting a rediscovery of humanity and the promise of total intimacy. Screened as part of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, this odyssey of Danish queer cinema brims with emotional texture and extraordinary cinematic moves, while steering clear of the usual ‘forbidden love’ clichés. In the young Danish actor Magnus Juhl Andersen’s posture and presence, there is a trace of the melancholy of Daniel Craig’s character in Queer (2024) – he searches for love to the very limits of his physical being.