I Am A Spy: Istanbul

2018

45min

Fallon, a gay MI6 agent, attends a party in London to meet his lover — only for the man to suddenly collapse and die in his arms, poisoned. Branded a traitor and exposed as a mole within the agency, Fallon is forced to flee. He escapes to Istanbul, where he hides out, waiting for contact with his partner Alina, unsure of who to trust or what remains of his identity. Told entirely through male whispering ASMR, the film unfolds as a hypnotic, slow-burning spy meditation that replaces action with intimacy, memory, and sound. The first entry in Alexander Roman’s experimental trilogy, I Am A Spy: Istanbul reframes espionage through a queer lens, exploring loss, betrayal, and emotional isolation in a genre that rarely makes room for vulnerability — let alone queer male desire.