After three years and 476 matches with men on dating applications, and a certain number of “short relationships that were as nice as they were brief”, director and anthropologist Céline Pernet decides to take the time to investigate her relationship with the men of her generation. Through an advert, she brings together around thirty men aged 30 to 45 years old, living in Switzerland, who agree to talk to the camera about their relationship(s) with masculinity. The director questions them about seduction, sex, couples, love and even paternity, in a quest as personal as it is societal. The protagonists show an urgent need to discuss contemporary masculinity and share their secrets, cry, doubt and laugh.

Production notes

Director Céline Pernet comes into the film with a warmer perspective, not looking to take down these men for how backwards they are, but instead, trying to understand them better, as a heterosexual woman looking for love. Instead of bringing a collection of men to a studio for an interview, – – Pernet visits men in their homes (or “man caves”) and poses a series of questions about sex and romance to each of them. She asks them about their experiences with casual sex, the first time they had sex, what they look for in a sexual partner, what it’s like to have kids (or want them or not), and what they think it means to be a man today.

Alex Heeney, Seventh Row