by John Noonan
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Bilal Hasna, Louis Greatorex, Safiyya Ingar Terique Jarrett Darkwah Sarah Agha
Intro:
… a daring film that not only explores queerness from a Non-Western perspective but also challenges the norms of how LGBT characters are portrayed in mainstream media. It's a joy to watch.
Drag artist Layla (Bilal Hasna) has found their own corner of the world in London ‘beyond the enemy trenches’ (as they describe it to someone). They have a chosen family of queer artists who protect each other fiercely. Away from Layla’s actual family, they can be who they want to be, without having to adhere to the limitations of a binary.
However, there’s a lot going on that Layla doesn’t share with their friends in Amrou Al-Khadi’s directorial debut. With them, Layla tells stories of being disowned by their family, including being cruelly beaten by their sister when they came out. Yet, when Layla disappears saying that they have a drag brunch to perform, we see the real reason is to attend their sister’s wedding. Despite everything we’re told, Layla’s family love and care for them. Yet, with the consistent deadnaming and being set up with the more attractive female guests, it’s apparent that Layla has never come out to their orthodox Muslim family.
Into Layla’s world of contradictions strides Max (Louis Greatorex), a marketing exec for a food company who hired Layla to be their token queer at a launch event. The two embark on a passionate relationship, but the question looms: can their vastly different worlds coexist without conflict?
Max is ostensibly open to Layla’s life, but questions them being non-binary; their pronouns are too impersonal, apparently. When Layla drops him off at work in one of their custom bright outfits, Max is cold and indifferent, suggesting that outside the bedroom that his partner doesn’t fit the vanilla-coated, heteronormative gay lifestyle he has chosen. To Layla’s friends, Max is the personification of the pinkwashed, capitalism that has played a controversial part of Pride parades around the world. When Max turns up to an art performance bedecked in rainbow flags like he’s about to cry ‘Yes, queen!’ from the rafters, Layla starts to believe the same.
Al-Khadi, who also wrote the screenplay, paints his star-crossed lovers with the subtlety of a fine tip paint brush, as well as, unfortunately, the more blatant tool of a trowel. There are the gentle moments where Max corrects Layla and they at once back down, but then in broad strokes we’re shown that Max’s bedroom is literally beige, highlighting how dull his world is. It’s a decision that is a touch on the nose, given the gentle playfulness of Al-Khadi’s script.
However, these moments don’t outshine Hasna’s performance as Layla, who switches between achingly vulnerable and being full of passionate indignation the next.
This is absolutely Hasan’s movie, and they take advantage of every opportunity they are given.
Despite a few artistic missteps, Layla is a daring film that not only explores queerness from a Non-Western perspective but also challenges the norms of how LGBT characters are portrayed in mainstream media. It’s a joy to watch.
