Daniel Monks in Pulse.

Pulse

Directed by Stevie Cruz-Martin
Written by Daniel Monks
Produced by Daniel Monks, Stevie Cruz-Martin, Gemma Hall
Starring Daniel Monks, Caroline Brazier, Scott Lee

Pulse is the ambitious debut of the talented Daniel Monks, who writes and stars in this body swap drama blending sci-fi with sexual teen angst and identity crisis.

Olly is a gay teen with disability who discovers that his two straight best friends are dating each other. Frustrated by his body, he chooses to undertake a pioneering medical procedure: a transplant that puts his mind into the body a beautiful young able-bodied woman. When his friends see through the beautiful, blonde façade to the troubled boy within, Olly discovers having the perfect body doesn’t fix unrequited love or a broken home. Self-destructive and at risk of losing all that is good in his life, Olly must decide whether his beautiful new identity is worth it.

With its understated sci-fi underpinnings, Pulse is a highly sexed-up modern parable on what it is to be young, with disability and queer on the verge of adulthood.

Pulse is screening at this year’s Sydney Film Festival on Wednesday, 14 June and Friday, 16 June. Tickets and details here.