Set in a neon fantasia of erotic exploration, Dry Wind follows the yearnings (both kinky and tender) of Sandro (Leandro Faria Lelo), a shy, hunky bear who spices up his mundane life working in a factory in dusty central Brazil with vivid sexual encounters—both real and imagined. Sandro’s giddy array of fetishes and fantasies—and even the prospect of love—come dazzlingly to life in the narrative feature debut from provocateur Daniel Nolasco (Mr. Leather, Frameline43), who imbues his sad-sack protagonist with an interior world melding Tom of Finland iconography inside a Pink Narcissus-inspired wonderland.

Complacent in his life working at a fertilizer factory alongside his best friend Paula (Renata Carvalho) and his semi-regular fuck buddy Ricardo (Allan Jacinto Santana), Sandro finds a new obsession in a mustachioed bad boy (Rafael Teóphilo) who rolls into town, bringing mystery and danger along with him. Visually arresting and sexually explicit, Dry Wind proved to be one of the hot tickets at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, signaling writer-director Nolasco’s arrival as a thrilling new voice in queer world cinema.