WATCH: A Muslim queen falls for a buttoned-up marketing bro in this dazzling drag dramedy
right.Layla and her pals tend to stick to their queer bubble, but every once in a while an opportunity presents itself to get paid doing drag “behind enemy lines”—in London’s financial district.
Hey, a gig’s a gig!Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.One day, while selling her soul for a corporate pride event, Layla catches the eye of a handsome young advertising executive named Max (Masters Of The Air‘s Louis Greatorex).
He might look a little more buttoned-up and straight-laced, but Max is gay, too, and before they know it, the pair are out dancing the night away.The feature directorial debut for actor-filmmaker-activist Amrou Al-Kadhi—also known as their fabulous drag persona Glamrou—Layla at first presents itself as a sort of queer spin on Romeo + Juliet: Two star-crossed lovers from different worlds, fighting to be together against the odds.But it gradually becomes something more surprising and thoughtful, exploring nuances within our broader queer community rarely discussed on screen.With ‘3 Body Problem,’ ‘Dead Hot,’ and season two of ‘Extraordianry’ premiering this month, nobody’s having a hotter March than Bilal Hasna.Max is in awe of Layla—nearly to the point of fetishization—openly jealous that she can, as he sees it, live so fearlessly outside conventional understandings of gender and sexuality.
Meanwhile, Layla believes she’s had to set boundaries in order to embrace her authentic self, keeping her distance from a family that might not understand.
