🎬 The Astronaut Lovers (2024): Orbiting the Love You Can’t Touch
Pedro, a young man living in Spain, returns to his family’s summer house in Argentina and reconnects with his childhood best friend, Maxi. What begins as nostalgic fun slowly shifts into emotional turbulence as old feelings resurface. Pedro is openly gay, Maxi is not — or at least, not yet sure of himself. As the two share increasingly intimate moments, the boundaries between friendship and romantic attraction begin to dissolve. The Astronaut Lovers explores longing, silence, and the gravity of unspoken love through the quiet tension that builds between two men who orbit each other, but don’t quite collide.
“When your childhood best friend lies next to you in bed… and you know you love him — and know he might never understand how.”
That’s not the plot of The Astronaut Lovers, the latest film by Argentine director Marco Berger — that’s the feeling it leaves in your chest.
On paper, it’s a simple setup. Pedro, a quiet young man returning to Argentina from Spain, spends the summer at his family’s coastal house. There, he reunites with Maxi — his childhood friend. But the sea isn’t the only thing rising with the heat. Unspoken feelings resurface, and that timeless question returns: “What if…?”
🌗 Pedro – The Silent Astronaut of Emotion
Pedro is not a loud character. He glides through the film like a shadow, soft, observant, carrying oceans behind his eyes. He knows who he is. He knows what he feels. He just doesn’t know if he’s allowed to say it.
His silence isn’t emptiness — it’s volume on mute. In every pause, every glance, Pedro speaks volumes. And the audience becomes his silent accomplice.
🌪️ Maxi – The Magnetic Confusion
Maxi is the film’s gravitational center. He’s charming, funny, “straight,” but with glances that linger too long.
His words are playful, but they cut. When he asks:
“Would it bother you if I slept next to you?”
it’s not about comfort — it’s a probe, a flirt wrapped in innocence.
Maxi doesn’t know what he wants — but he knows he likes being wanted.
🛏️ The First Bed Scene – The Unspoken Tension
When they share a bed for the first time, nothing physical happens — but everything emotional does.
Pedro lies still. Maxi glances. They barely move, yet the tension could rip the frame apart.
This scene is not about touch.
It’s about the possibility of touch.
💔 When the Truth Finally Breaks the Silence
Later, when the weight becomes too much, Pedro softly says:
“I’ve always had feelings for you.”
It’s not a demand. Not a plea. It’s a release.
A moment of truth that doesn’t ask for love in return — just acknowledgment.
Maxi doesn’t respond immediately. Of course not. Sometimes, the truth arrives before we’re ready to hear it.
🎥 Marco Berger’s Mastery of Subtlety
Berger doesn’t direct films — he breathes them.
He doesn’t tell queer stories — he tells human stories that just happen to be queer.
In The Astronaut Lovers, he gives us a slow, soft, emotionally charged narrative. Long silences. Lingering gazes. Dialogues that mean more in what they don’t say.
⭐ Final Thought
This isn’t a film about love.
It’s a film about closeness that burns. About orbiting someone you can’t land on.
When it ends, you’re not sure if you should cry, call someone from your past, or lie down in silence and let it ache.
The Astronaut Lovers isn’t about astronauts.
It’s about those of us still learning how to land without breaking.
🔖 Best for:
- Lovers of slow-burn queer dramas
- Viewers who appreciate emotional tension over overt drama
- Anyone who once loved someone they couldn’t have — or couldn’t tell
