Austrian director Manuel Wetscher’s debut feature, Eklipse, will premiere in Venice’s Horizons section on 5 September. Drawing on his own experience of being shielded from details of his father’s AIDS-related death, the film follows a teenager confronting family secrecy and rejection after his friend learns his father has “the gay disease”.

Set during a 1990s summer at an Alpine dairy farm, the film centres on Tomy and his best friend Chris as they help Tomy’s uncle and explore the countryside. Moritz Hohlrieder and Finley Brown lead the cast, while Films Boutique is handling worldwide sales for the Austrian-Italian production.