Film
Holiday
Other titles called Holiday: the 1938 film, the 2014 film.
A 2014 Ecuadorian drama about a young man navigating desire and survival in fin-de-siècle Quito, where gratitude blurs into something more complicated. Intimate and unflinching, it moves quietly through class, sexuality, and vulnerability. For viewers seeking cinema that trusts silence and ambiguity.
If you liked this
Undertow2004
Brazilian drama about two men and the emotional entanglement that develops between them in rural isolation. Shares the same careful attention to desire as a force that destabilizes and transforms.
But Slow-paced, minimal plot. The narrative unfolds through glances and hesitation rather than event.
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation2006
A Brazilian film set during political upheaval that captures adolescence and displacement with remarkable tenderness. Similar setting of social turbulence framing intimate coming-of-age.
But The political context may feel distant if you're unfamiliar with 1970s Brazil, and the tone is melancholic throughout.
Mulholland Drive2001
A meditation on desire, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves. Like Holiday, it's interested in how attraction can destabilize reality and perception.
But Deliberately cryptic and dreamlike. Rewards multiple viewings but frustrates anyone wanting clarity or linear resolution.
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Madness in the Method2019
Both Ecuadorian and Colombian cinema of this era share a concern with male desire and vulnerability, but Madness uses chaos where Holiday uses silence.
A Colombian mockumentary about two men trying to make a film—absurdist, energetic, and structured entirely differently from Holiday. Both are set in Latin America exploring male intimacy, but this one uses comedy and meta-fiction as its tool instead of restraint.
But The humor is very specific to Colombian cinema and media. If satire of film culture doesn't land for you, the whole enterprise collapses.
More like this (8)
Beautiful Thing1996
British coming-of-age that treats same-sex desire with warmth and humor. Explores how connection transforms two young people navigating difficult homes.
But Tonal shift toward uplift and romance may feel at odds with Holiday's ambiguity and restraint.
Tomboy2011
French drama about a child navigating gender and belonging in a new neighborhood. Quietly observational, never didactic. Trusts the viewer to sit with discomfort.
But Very slow. Some find the lack of narrative momentum tedious rather than contemplative.
Mysterious Skin2005
American indie about two young men whose lives intersect after childhood trauma. Unflinching about damage and desire, about how damage shapes desire.
But Deals explicitly with sexual abuse and exploitation. Emotionally punishing in ways Holiday is not.
We Are What We Are2010
Mexican drama about a family fractured by loss and poverty in Mexico City. Shares Holiday's unflinching look at survival, shame, and the bonds that hold broken things together.
But Genuinely difficult to watch. The family's circumstances are bleak and there's no redemptive arc.
Spring2014
A young American in Italy meets a mysterious woman; what unfolds is philosophical and strange. Both films use place and atmosphere to explore how attraction unmoors us.
But The genre shift into magical realism happens abruptly and may feel incongruous depending on your taste.
Fish Tank2009
British social realism about a troubled teenager whose life shifts when a charismatic man enters her orbit. Explores fantasy, desire, and the violence of disillusionment.
But Bleak and occasionally brutal. The ending is deliberately unsatisfying in a way some viewers find punitive rather than artistic.
Winter Light1963
Both films are interested in the architecture of desire—not desire as plot, but desire as the frame through which characters misread each other and themselves.
Bergman's masterpiece about a pastor's crisis of faith and his confused connection to a woman. A structural ancestor to Holiday's exploration of how need creates complicated attachment.
But Bleak, abstract, and made in 1963. If black-and-white and existential philosophy feel dated to you, this will test your patience.
A Prophet2009
Both films use a single relationship—and the gratitude born from rescue—as the entire emotional engine. Both resist naming what that relationship becomes.
French prison drama following a young man's survival and transformation through an intense mentorship. Like Holiday, it's about vulnerability and gratitude morphing into something neither character can name.
But Prison setting is claustrophobic and occasionally violent. The pacing is deliberate and the emotional payoff is muted.
People
Cast
Juan ArreguiJuan Pablo
Diego Andrés ParedesJuano- Manuela MerchánLa Flaca
Cristina MorrisonAunt Victoria- Elena VargasAnna
- Peki AndinoUncle Jorge
- Canela SamaniegoMaribel
- Irwin OrtizJorgito
Alejandra CormanReportera
Directing
- Diego AraujoDirector
Writing
- Diego AraujoScreenplay
Production
- Mauricio SamaniegoCasting
- Felicitas RaffoProducer
- Hanne-Lovise SkartveitProducer