When buttoned-up academic Vivian arrives in Reno to finalise her divorce, she isn’t expecting to meet Cay, free-spirited, magnetic, and entirely uninterested in playing by anyone else’s rules. What follows is a slow-burning romance that unfolds with tenderness, heat, and just the right amount of emotional risk.

Donna Deitch’s landmark film was one of the first to centre queer female desire without tragedy looming in the wings, and it still feels refreshingly defiant because of it. With its dreamy desert backdrop and undeniable chemistry between its leads, Desert Hearts is less about finding yourself and more about letting go.