‘Unicorns’ – busting labels and showing that attraction can be complex and surprising...

Review of British film that enjoyed a strong festival run and is now on general release in the UK…

SINGLE Dad Luke (Ben Hardy) is drifting emotionally – perhaps that is to be kind – the opening scenes see him having casual sex with a woman in a field.

Some would say he is emotionally vacant – there is nothing there, to these Tinder driven relationships – a quick poke and his lust is satiated.

It is only when he meets Aysha (Jason Patel) in a nightclub that things begin to stir in his soul?
Fired by that initial sparky lust, he makes a move – there is chemistry and fireworks – Aysha reciprocates and the two seem well matched, if you remove the heteronormative mode Luke has been operating in – all his life.

It’s bumpy – Luke can’t quite accept he is attracted to a man who has the outward appearance of a woman and lives like one for a lot of the time.

The romance seems to lose its urgent and bright momentum, with Luke struggling to get his head around the idea that he might not be so obviously or blandly just into ‘women’. His sexuality more fluid than he imagined. He is breaking a certain level of conformity and expectation here – as a mechanic in a small garage he runs with his lazy (divorced?) father and a young son he looks after – following the separation from his wife who remains on reasonable terms – holding out the prospect of a reconciliation.

Aysha needs a driver to get to the clubs where she performs – s/he and Ashiq (Patel) have a day job in a retail shop but at night she is her own person. She asks Luke who could do with extra cash as it is and he is employed by her to drive her around.

Their relationship rekindles and there are yet more twists and turns and the drag world becomes an important backdrop to how the story moves on.

Without giving too much away, Ashiq finds himself back in the parental home and nursing both his ego and his wounded body.

His family are traditional Gujarati Muslims who don’t approve or happily accept his mode of being – and yet there is a love and concern.

Writer James Krishna Floyd – well-known as an actor in the popular primetime TV series, ‘The Good Karma Hospital’ – has penned a credible, believable tale that covers many issues without the film coming across as worthy, preachy or didactic. He deals with the family (fallout) sensitively.

As co-director along with partner Sally El Hosaini (‘The Swimmers’), the two keep the story moving and the characters’ struggles at the forefront.

This is a powerful and affecting tale, offering insights and understanding into a world many might dismiss or feel discomforted by – the sexual politics and issues around faith and practice are there but not overtly or crudely laid – and so the films works on different levels, as many good films do.

A love story essentially, Patel is tremendous in what appears to be his first full length feature role, while Hardy also delivers as your everyday Essex jack-the-lad type figure.

This deserves to be widely seen as a film that primarily entertains and absorbs – the issues come after the story and in possible discussions with your friends and those interested in the subjects of labels, boxes and stereotypes. (A theme covered in our interview with director Floyd – see link below). Both actors also talked about their characters’ thought processes, inhibitions and strategies (see link below).

It will be interesting to see what this directing-writing partnership might do now beyond ‘Unicorns’ if they continue to work together.
ACV rating: **** (four out of five)

‘Unicorns’ (15) is out now in UK cinemas…
2 hours

Interviews
James Krishna Floyd