In 2023, the British filmmaker Campbell X put out an invitation on social media to “please share with me your most controversial take on LGBTQI films”. Among those who responded was Francis Lee, the director of God’s Own Country and Ammonite. “Make your gay characters complex,” Lee said. “Problematic. Nasty f***ers who do bad things. Unapologetic. Evil. Manipulative. Unlikable. Three-dimensional. Villainous. Not just the ‘cute’ teens holding hands.”
It’s an admirable goal. And yet that manner of portrayal invariably encounters opposition from funding bodies, festival selection panels and distributors before it can even reach critics and audiences. One of the most egregious examples of a radically queer film being stymied on its way to the marketplace is Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s 2023 thriller Femme. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett plays Jules, a statuesque drag queen who is the victim of a homophobic attack. Months later, he spots his closeted assailant, Preston (George MacKay), in a gay sauna. Preston doesn’t recognise him out of drag, which gives Jules the chance to contrive a sexual relationship with him as revenge.
