All of Derek Jarman's films have caused a stir, but Sebastiane caused riots at the 1977 Locarno Festival; it was also one of the biggest box office hits of the year in London. Rob Baker of New York's Soho Weekly News writes, “Sebastiane has a pretension and a perversity about it that are surprisingly appealing in the long run. The very idea, you shriek to yourself, loving it the whole time...”
Set on a sunny, sandy coastline (filmed in Sardinia), and co-directed by Jarman and Paul Humfress, Sebastiane is a homoerotic rendering of the legend of St. Sebastian--in Latin, with English subtitles. Sebastian is played by Leonardo Treviglio, who spends much of the film tied to a stake, tormented by the sexual advances of his commander, Severus (Barney Janes), and tortured by Severus when he refuses him. Throughout, the nude and nearly nude Roman soldiers engage in various playful skirmishes. In a Time Out interview, writer/producer James Whaley “recalls that the script went through countless rewrites before and during shooting...it was kept deliberately fluid in order to exploit the possibilities of the location...and to integrate the actors' skills (shadow boxing, dance, flute playing, etc.) into the action...”
Rob Baker calls Sebastiane “visually and erotically a better turn on than anything likely to turn up on the local porno circuit,” while The Hollywood Reporter's Ron Pennington takes a more sober view: “Sebastiane does provide an interesting intellectual and visual experience, primarily due to the lyrical quality achieved by Jarman and Humfress. Visually, it is an often stunning work...which combines both brutal and beautiful images on the stark desert location.”