First look at queer revenge thriller, Femme
Femme is a compelling and dramatic thriller about a drag artist who takes action after a brutal and homophobic attack.
With his performances as Aphrodite Banks, Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Candyman) has a place among London’s celebrated drag artists. One night after a show, he steps out to get some cigarettes and is brutally attacked by a man (George MacKay, 1917), out with a gang of his friends. Although Jules is able to recover physically, he withdraws from the outside world, traumatized. Months later, he recognizes his attacker by chance in a gay sauna. Without make-up and wrapped only in a towel, Jules is able to approach the other man incognito and find out who he is. He begins an affair with the closeted Preston, with a plan to take his revenge.
Jules’ life and career as a drag queen is destroyed by a homophobic attack. But when he re-encounters his attacker, the deeply-closeted Preston, in a gay sauna, he is presented with a chance to exact revenge. Unrecognisable out of his wig and make-up, Jules infiltrates Preston’s life, and in doing so, discovers power in a different kind of drag…
The critics are raving and a god amount of buzz is already being generated. Queer independent cinema has come a long way since the 1990s and continues to evolve as a genre in its own right, absorbing the issues of our community and the increasing diversification of our identities.
“A riveting queer revenge drama [featuring] a pair of sensational performances by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay.”– Guy Lodge, VARIETY
“Exhilarating. Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s cracking debut feature brings a dangerously twisted frisson to the concept of code-switching.”– Stephen A. Russell, TIME OUT
“Femme is subversive, unsettling and sexually charged. A thrillingly transgressive erotic thriller.”– Wendy Ide, SCREEN DAILY
“A bold tale of sex and revenge. Femme is both a movie of our moment and wildly overdue.”– Jason Adams, MASHABLE
Utopia will release Femme in North American theaters on March 22, 2024.
