This haunting romantic drama tells a story of gay love & loss in 1920s England
Lilies Not For Me, tells a story of gay love, loss, and persecution, set over 100 years ago.Described as a “haunting mix of romanticism and unflinching horror,” the film opens in 1920s England, where aspiring novelist Owen James (Handsome Devil‘s Fionn O’Shea) is a patient in a medical facility that’s working to “cure” him of his homosexual proclivities.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.As part of his treatment, he is prescribed daily teatime dates with Nurse Dororthy (The Falcon And The Winter Solider‘s breakout lesbian star Erin Kellyman), which are intended to prepare him for his “normal” heterosexual life.But as the two strike up an unlikely friendship, Owen finds himself sharing more and more about his past.
Through a series of flashbacks, we see both how his clandestine affair with another man began, and how it all spiraled out of control once they both agreed to a risky, experimental practice that promised to help suppress their desires.Seefried has said Lilies Not For Me was inspired by his own research into the history of a “shocking procedure from the 1920s which claimed to ‘cure’ homosexuality”—one with alarming parallels to today.“This history struck me as a chilling expression of the violence that queer people still endure to this day,” the filmmaker previously shared with Deadline, “while evoking the books and films that were most influential to me as a young person — haunting period romances with queer relationships at their center.” Citing classics new and old like James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Todd Haynes’ Carol, and Merchant Ivory’s Maurice, Seefried was keen on making his feature debut in this tradition: “Society loves to pretend that queerness is a recent phenomenon, so I think there is great power in stories that explore the past in new ways.”“Queer people didn’t just show up at Stonewall—we’ve been around forever.”Also, it’s worth noting that the film.
