Layla is a personal story that everyone can relate to especially the writer and director, Amrou Al-Kadhi, who has based this film on his own life. The main character Layla is played by Bilal Hasna. This person really knows how to make themselves look delicate! If you ask me though, I’d say it works better as an intimate experience than a linear narrative, it opens up queerness and chosen families like nothing else could ever do. Al-Kadhi sets all of their movies in London because they want people from different cultures living side by side with each other on screen. Such was the case here too: non-binary Arab drag queen Layla falls in love with white gay guy Max (Louis Greatorex). For multi-hyphenate artist Al-Kadhi, this relationship serves as another opportunity for self-discovery through cinema.
It’s like waiting for buses, you stand around forever and then three come along at once. Last year’s Femme had us on the edge of our seats with its black protagonist, but Layla is so far removed from that. Sally El Hosaini’s Unicorns tells a similar story about Muslim drag queens if it wasn’t for being set in Toronto 2023 instead of London I might even mistake one movie for another!
If there’s any place where this film will find an audience outside of Sundance, it’ll be among LGBTQ+ communities everywhere else too. In terms of sheer authenticity about what some people consider “the fringe” (or rather what these beautiful creatures call home), no other movie comes close. So in that sense alone we can expect good things from Layla although not much more than that unfortunately It deals openly with sexuality which should never cause controversy nowadays but definitely would have done back when those scenes were written, however there is still potential for problems given certain ratings boards’ views on shoe related violence.
Sometimes Al-Khadi’s work feels like a dam breaking: everything is pent-up inside them and just needs to get out somehow. At other times it seems more like an ache something tender, yearning for release. Once known as Latif, Layla has always been searching for love; they want someone who will love them back too. But their genderqueer identity often clashes with the straight men they’re attracted to, leaving them feeling ‘always in-between’ themselves.
Layla has created her own chosen family because she doesn’t have one or rather, didn’t until now. This group of friends represents everything she never had growing up, freedom, acceptance and unconditional love. Unfortunately though these things can’t exist without being tested first. And in this case that means facing Layla’s deeply conservative Muslim upbringing head on (or at least trying). Later on though things become even more complicated than before when Max enters the picture; suddenly it feels like nothing makes sense anymore especially not Layla herself!
It’s clear that Amrou Al-Kadhi saw a lot of himself in Hasna’s character. The actor gives such an authentic performance that you can’t help but feel like they were born to play this role which is saying something considering how many layers there are! I don’t think I’ve ever seen another movie where someone covers themselves in cold microwave pasta during pride week I mean truly dedicated! The rest of the cast does well also but Bilal really steals every scene he’s in; Louis Greatorex doesn’t stand much chance against all his exuberance.
Al-Kadhi also squeezes the most out of their little budget and 27-day shoot in East London, mostly through costume designer Cobbie Yates (though production design does a neat job of seeing through and around the cheap-sequin glamour in central club Feathers and its rooftop). But this is not just drag dazzle for every character, Yates works wonders; without doubt guided by Al-Khadi, who appears offscreen as Glamrou.
It’s difficult to tell what direction Al-Kadhi will take next. Having already made four short films about queer people of colour drawn from their own life, they write for TV as well as film, act, direct and perform in drag all of which has gone into Layla. This is not a debut that suggests the author could turn their hand to any material; nor does it comply with convention or seek to polish its rough corners up into a sleek ‘calling card’. Al-Khadi is flying their freak flag; what happens next is up to them.
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