Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla and Luke Willis’ Lady Like will be bookending this celebration of LGBTQIA film
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGES BY INDEPENDENT ENTERTAINMENT AND MATT BURKE
The 38th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA Film Festival has announced that it will be opening with Amrou Al-Kadhi’s debut feature Layla on 13 March at BFI Southbank. The UK’s longest-running queer film event will close on 23 March with Lady Like by director/producer Luke Willis.
Layla, which stars Bilal Hasna in its titular role, tells the story of a struggling Arab drag queen who uses confidence to mask their desperate desire for love. After a performance at a corporate Pride event, Layla catches the eye of marketing executive Max, leading to an intoxicating romance.
Amrou Al-Kadhi, Layla’s director, said: “It’s such a profound honour and joy to be opening BFI Flare this year. BFI Flare has been utterly instrumental to my career.”
“Layla is a film dedicated to the creative resilience of the queer community, and a love-letter to queer joy – to be opening the festival where I first felt the impact of joyful representation on screen, found my people and laid the foundations of my career, is a cosmic gift, and I simply cannot wait to celebrate LAYLA with my community.”
Closing this year’s Festival is Luke Willis’s Lady Like, the story of London-born, San Francisco-based drag queen Lady Camden, aka Rex Wheeler, as she is catapulted into the spotlight on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 14.
Luke said: “I cannot think of a better place to premiere Lady Like than BFI Flare! This story builds to Lady Camden‘s long-awaited return home to London to perform for the first time at the very nightclub that he ever went to as a young gay boy – Heaven. It will be such a blast to share this inspiring story that starts in Camden, finds itself in San Francisco, traverses the globe, and ends in London with BFI Flare audiences!”
The full programme for BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA Film Festival will be revealed on Tuesday 13 February at 11 am.
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