A blistering, morally complex revenge story, FEMME focuses on Jules, who performs as Aphrodite Banks in London’s drag community. When a brief foray to get some cigarettes ends with a brutal attack, Jules is traumatized. His physical wounds soon heal, but mentally he cannot contend with the attack, until one late night he spies his attacker at an all-night sauna, initiating an affair with the violent, closeted Preston. Receiving wide acclaim after its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, this expansion of directing duo Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s short of the same name is a thriller like no other. Existing within opposing spheres of queer and toxic machismo, the leads, performed outstandingly by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George McKay, find themselves in a labyrinthine web of lies and hidden identities. The kind of thriller that would have made Hitchcock blush, FEMME navigates a world of muddled morality with grace and finds enough room to examine its characters without judgment. A thrilling, one-of-a-kind experience.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Utopia

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

Cost: $10.00 (member); $15.00 (general admission)