Johnny (Josh O’Connor) is hard on the outside, disinclined to be vulnerable, and the labor of caring for his family’s farm and his ailing father seems to be taking a toll on him emotionally. The arrival of Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian migrant worker whose presence is to lend an extra hand, shakes up Johnny’s life. Though Johnny sleeps with men occasionally, he discards them easily. But Gheorghe’s presence is different for Johnny; for Johnny, Gheorghe represents the complexity of masculinity, that it does not have to be defined by hardness, meanness, and power. That masculinity can be soft, caring, gentle, tender, and compassionate. That’s how director Francis Lee approaches the film, textural and tactile in its emotional and sexual moments. For God’s Own Country, queerness is of the earth.

Stream on Prime Video.