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Culture Watch: Sebastian

An ambitious writer embraces an alter ego as he researches the highs and lows of life as a sex-worker.

Gaydar

02 Apr 2025 — 6 min read

The latest film from Mikko Mäkelä is Sebastian.

The story centres around Max (Ruaridh Mollica) - a young writer who embarks on a double life as a sex worker to research his debut novel.

Mäkelä gives us a time and place that will feel familiar to many gay men in London. Max lives in a share-house in Hackney, he works freelance, he works in media, he's doing what he can to get the breakthrough that he's always dreamed of.

It is an exploration of the allure of autobiographical fiction - using our experiences to fuel our creativity, masking and revealing different facets of our identity, uncovering new parts of ourselves as the real and the imagined increasingly blur.

Authors such as Bret Easton Ellis and Cyril Collard are referenced in the film, as these are writers that Max is consciously emulating as he adopts his sex-worker persona of Sebastian and immerses himself in the profession that is fuelling his creativity.

This film rests on the shoulders of Mollica and he delivers a compelling performance - embodying a character who is on edge, unsure of himself, but aware of his sexual power and intrigued by where it can take him. He's self-conscious and responds positively to validation and praise, but is also brittle in the face of criticism or uncertainty.

The result is a believable narrative arc of a character who is second-guessing himself as he tries to navigate his relationship with sex while figuring out who he is. It's a film that quietly illustrates the inherently transgressive nature of queer sexuality and the power of overcoming the shame we are conditioned to associate with sex and pleasure.

Mikko Mäkelä: The interview

Ahead of the film's cinema release in the UK, I caught up with Mikko Mäkelä for a behind-the-scenes look at Sebastian.

You’ve talked about your inspiration for the film coming from the way that sex-work has become one of the gig-economy options for men in London. In the film, we see Max getting a bit defensive when he’s constantly asked about how he knows so much about sex work. How are you navigating that?

The film is certainly playing with a lot of ideas consciously about auto-fiction and autobiographical writing. But what I really wanted the film to be asking was is an audience's enjoyment of a film or whatever artistic product predicated on whether an author has firsthand knowledge of the subject.

We live in this moment that really places so much currency on authenticity of voice and experience. Although this is a fictional story, I wanted it very much to feel extremely authentic and be based on authentic stories from around me, from friends who do sex-work - I wanted to get those details right.

You mentioned the theme of autobiographical fiction and how we mine and monetise our identities and experiences. In the film, Max’s mother tells him that he can keep some things to himself, but in a way, that’s all he’s got. Do you feel that social media has turbo-charged the way we present our personal experiences to the world?

When Max says that he's not that interested or comfortable with social media, I guess in that sense, his social media is his fiction. It's also his ambition that allows him to feel that his sharing is somehow more worthwhile.

What he's doing is more highbrow than social media?

Exactly - while it is still sharing, he's creating art.

Is that something that you've personally had to try and figure - how you present yourself to the world?

I'm not hugely active on social media myself - I don't feel that comfortable sharing very personal things in that sense.

In the film there is the character of an author who doesn't give interviews - the only way you can find out about her is to read the books?

I've always been fascinated by that idea of just letting the work speak for itself. But I do really enjoy talking about my work.

Shame around sex is a theme explored in the film. Max’s narrative arc where he is able to embrace his sex-work and not have to conceal that part of him seems to reflect the mainstreaming of sex-work that we’ve seen through fan-subscription platforms such as OnlyFans. Is Max liberated from shame by being open and authentic about his sexuality?

He's definitely grappling with it throughout the film.

While he kind of professes these sex-positive, shame-free ideals, he can't help but at times come up against an internalised shame that maybe comes from his family background or ideas that he's been brought up with.

There was a line in the film - I think it was as the story of Sebastian was being read - referencing "shame about shame"? Could you talk a little bit more about that?

He would very much like to be free of shame, but it becomes this cycle where he finds himself feeling shame, and that in turn is shameful because that shame is in contradiction to his ideal of being shame-free in that sense. He's still got those hangups.

In the conclusion of the film, Max seems to have it all figured out. But I was wondering how Max’s experience of sex-work might have shaped his experience of intimacy when he’s not with a client. Is Max boyfriend material?

I think so. I guess I'm wondering, why wouldn't he be?

I guess my question comes from talking with sex workers and often the monetisation of intimacy and the transactional nature that sort of happens around that can sometimes leave you with a slightly different perspective on what intimacy looks and feels like - when am I working and when am I not working? That wasn't something that was really explored in Max's story?

We do see a little bit of that in the film when he hooks up with a guy from his writing group. They're having sex and Max starts having sex in almost a performative way. He feels the need in that situation to keep up the same persona that he has crafted as Sebastian.

I suppose sex work probably makes you more attuned to the idea of performing intimacy but I don't think it would make him less able to feel it in a genuine way.

What do you hope that people feel when they're watching your film, Sebastian?

I hope it raises questions in them. I hope they feel a little bit provoked. I hope it makes them think about the ideas that they have about sex-work - if they have preconceptions, I hope it can make them question those a little bit.

I hope they relate to Max's story. Ultimately, it's quite a universal coming-of-age story of a 20-something living in city like London, just trying to find themselves and trying on different versions of themselves, making some mistakes on the way, trying to find their voice. trying to make it in the world.

Sebastian is released in UK and Irish cinemas 4th April