Layla was our absolute favourite film of the Sundance film festival.
The film tenderly and honestly portrays the intercultural experience of queer people of the Middle Eastern diaspora. Seeing as the family dynamics and gender binary expectations are very similar to the Greek ones, I felt like I was seeing a part of my story being told on the screen. There is a profound identity dilemma that stems from wanting to connect with your culture - which feels inherent to you - while at the same time struggling to feel free within it and your family because of your queerness. As you get older, you begin to understand the reason why you've distanced yourself from your family: fear. It is a specific type of fear, which terrifies you at the idea of being completely pushed away from your family and your culture that you admire and/or feel within, therefore you distance yourself from it all to prevent any harm, which can cause in the end just that.
It's overall a thrilling and colourful story, painted by the musicality and richness of tradition, proving audiences that more intercultural and intersectional stories are needed to keep cinema alive.
The film tenderly and honestly portrays the intercultural experience of queer people of the Middle Eastern diaspora. Seeing as the family dynamics and gender binary expectations are very similar to the Greek ones, I felt like I was seeing a part of my story being told on the screen. There is a profound identity dilemma that stems from wanting to connect with your culture - which feels inherent to you - while at the same time struggling to feel free within it and your family because of your queerness. As you get older, you begin to understand the reason why you've distanced yourself from your family: fear. It is a specific type of fear, which terrifies you at the idea of being completely pushed away from your family and your culture that you admire and/or feel within, therefore you distance yourself from it all to prevent any harm, which can cause in the end just that.
It's overall a thrilling and colourful story, painted by the musicality and richness of tradition, proving audiences that more intercultural and intersectional stories are needed to keep cinema alive.