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Watch the trailer for the 1980s gay drama Minyan

In partnership with Peccadillo Pictures.

By Alastair James

Take a trip to Brighton Beach – New York City, 1987 in the latest release from Peccadillo Pictures, the critically acclaimed drama Minyan, which sees the gradual coming out of young David into his Russian Jewish immigrant community, with a little help from a sexy barman in the East Village.

David is a young handsome man, confined by the rules of his conservative orthodox neighbourhood in New York. Moving in with his grandfather he befriends their new neighbours, a closeted gay couple who are survivors of the Holocaust.

The friendship opens his eyes to same-sex desire and a whole other life beyond the yeshiva school – a world teeming with the vibrance of youth and forbidden gay bars.

Adapted from David Bezmozgis’ story, director Eric Steel fused his own coming of age experience in New York City in the 1980’s to David’s.

Eric says, “The protagonist of the short story is not gay, but there were pieces of DNA from Bezmozgis’s writing that I felt were foundational to who David was: the immigrant who doesn’t fit into his community, and who doesn’t have access to language.”

On his own coming out, Eric goes on, “I came out in 1982, right before AIDS, and it was great, my parents were wonderful, you could go to Fire Island and be whomever you wanted without caution. But within a year, it all started to change.

“By 1988, my original group of friends, every single one of them, was dead except for me. I couldn’t explain why I survived, there was no rhyme or reason to it — in the same way that those who survived the Holocaust cannot easily explain why they made it out alive and others didn’t.

“There was no map to follow or set of instructions that guaranteed survival. As soon as those things came together in my story, it generated a lot of energy.”

Featuring exquisite cinematography by Ole Bratt Birkeland, Director Eric Steel’s bravura debut tells a powerful story of spiritual and sexual awakening.

You can catch the film on DVD and on all major streamers, including Peccadillo’s very own streaming platform, Peccadillo POD. Watch the trailer below: