Femme

In the opening minutes of Femme, a joyous queer cabaret night turns to an ugly homophobic attack as drag performer Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is assaulted on his way home by a group of thugs – one of whom was loitering by the venue. The realisation of Jules’ worst fears is writ large on his face and being as he moves from the immediate aftermath to the everyday traumas of the outside world, but the film shifts from recovery narrative to thriller when he begins a secretive relationship with the loiterer Preston (George Mackay) – who seems not to recognise him from the attack. Thus begins Jules’ quest for answers – or is he after revenge?

Legacies of overt and internalised homophobia loom throughout Femme. Expanded and adapted from their short of the same name, writer-directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping neglect neither physical nor existential stakes in their uncompromising script. Jules faces clear life and limb threats, whereas it is never explained whether (white, closeted) Preston’s fears of humiliation or worse from his peers are real or imagined. 

Stewart-Jarrett rebuilds Jules’ heartbreaking loss of confidence into a chameleonic armour, as curiosity, attraction and disgust play out in his path to his own form of justice. In Mackay’s face and form, Preston’s nervous twitches and easy falsehoods both become masks for the same tortured vulnerability. Femme is unafraid of public and private acts of violence, and while its conclusion is forced, complicated character portraits mark the film as an astonishing feature debut. 

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Released 1 Dec by Signature Entertainment; certificate 18