British-Iraqi director Amrou Al-Kadhi, makes his debut feature film about a Palestinian drag queen living in East London dealing with issues about identity, racism and patriarchy.
Layla (Bilal Hasna) is a gender fluid drag queen/performance artist living in East London, in a house they share with a bunch of queer of colour dealing with lives of living and escaping in London. Layla makesup to perform a chaotic life in a chaotic world. They struggle with their Palestinian straight life and escaping to live and perform in a drag world which is their salvation.
While performing for a fast-food company called Fork Me!, Layla flips out and acts out for being paid with food credit. This catches Max’s (Louis Greatorex), attention who becomes Layla’s love interest. This is followed by a complicated courtship where Max is introduced to Feathers, a gay club facing closure in East London.
The film explores Layla’s struggles with acceptance, racism and making it in East London. It premiered and Sundance and was the closing film at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. The film festival recently signed on the PACBI – Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel after 11 years of resisting. However, the film festival is yet to sign on the Pride Protocol Against Pinkwashing by taking sponsorship money from the Royal Bank of Canada. Pinkwashing is a practice where corporation that fund the Israeli genocide against Palestine sponsor Pride festivals.