Screening: Femme

A traumatic assault while Jules is in drag leaves him hardened. Unbeknownst to his attacker, Jules insinuates himself into his affections. And the line between the game of revenge and genuine devotion grows blurrier with every escalating tryst and personal revelation in this critically acclaimed psychosexual thriller.

Preston (George MacKay, the captivating star of Pride and 1917) is a posturing, tattooed ex-convict constantly on the edge of boiling over with rage. But Jules (a magnificent Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) knows who he really is: a closet-case pulsing with vulnerability. Jules takes advantage of this cloaked softness to lure Preston in, the two meeting in cars and dark forests, each playing the part that neither truly is. The roles starting, slowly, to flip. Pushed by his well-meaning friend Alicia (Asha Reid) and shifty bestie Toby (John McCrea), Jules inches closer to the razor’s edge between becoming like his attacker or rediscovering his former feminine power. Writer-directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s spine-chilling noir is a cat-and-mouse chase with real stakes that will scramble your sympathies up to and including the very last moment. Keeping you guessing: who is playing who?