On October 21 at 00h35, M-Net will screen the romantic drama Brokeback Mountain directed by Ang Lee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway and Randy Quaid.

Based on the short story by Annie Proulx, this multiple award-winning drama of love and loss revolves around two cowboys who try to suppress their enduring love for one another by getting involved with women.

Ang Lee’s brilliant exploration of the agony of forbidden love in mid-western America during the 1960s earned scores of awards, including three Oscars, and was one of the most talked-about movies of 2005.

Cowboys Jack and Ennis land a job herding thousands of sheep on the wide open spaces of a Wyoming ranch. One bitterly cold night, they share a tent and have sex. It’s a revelation for both men but they draw away and try and get on with their lives. This is, after all, 1960s America, when gay relationships between macho cowboys are frowned upon.

Ennis marries his fiancée Alma, and Jack marries Lureen, a rodeo queen. Jack, who can’t get the summer they shared out of his mind, contacts Ennis. They resume their affair during annual fishing trips but keep up the charade of domestic bliss. The more-romantic Jack wants the two to set up ranch together but Ennis, ever the conservative, won’t hear of it. Meanwhile, Ennis’s wife Alma is suffering her own agony: she has glimpsed the “friends” together and has a good idea of what’s going on.