Masc

We all perform, contorting ourselves to fit into a given moment or situation. For Robin (a raw and unguarded Joshua Griffin), the negotiation between who he is and who he thinks he needs to be never stops, no matter the setting.

In his striking, deeply original debut feature, co-written with Griffin, director Bertil Nilsson draws on his own experiences as a neurodivergent gay man navigating the contradictory demands of masculinity. And he has crafted something genuinely rare: a film built not around crisis or coming out, but around the subtler, ongoing work of simply figuring out how to exist as oneself. In this evocative portrait, people — both queer and straight — will recognize the gap between how we see ourselves, how we imagine others see us, and the elaborate, often unconscious adjustments we make between the two.

Structured in five chapters and shot over a year, Masc tracks Robin’s shifting appearance and environments with real ingenuity, with London’s many facets bringing different versions of Robin to the surface. The title nods to masking, the act of hiding an aspect of ourselves to feel accepted. But the film does the opposite. It gently and fearlessly exposes the parts of Robin that are sometimes uncomfortable, unfinished, or simply never given room to exist. In the end, Nilsson offers an unexpected finale as a way of embracing emotional truths that words alone cannot express.

JASON RYLE

TIFF Next Wave: Celebrating the highs and lows (and everything in between) of young voices in today’s fast-moving world. This film has been selected for the next generation of film lovers by the TIFF Next Wave Committee.