Gay drama ‘Postcards from London’ starring Harris Dickinson to close London LGBT Film Festival
The 'Beach Rats' star plays a teenager who gets mixed up in the world of male escorts.
By Will Stroude
BFI Flare, the London LGBT film festival, has announced its opening and closing films for its upcoming 32nd edition, which kicks off next month.
The festival will open the festival on Wednesday, 21 March with a showing of Tali Shalom-Ezer’s stirring drama My Days of Mercy starring Ellen Page and Kate Mara, before coming to a close ten days later with a screening of Steve McLean’s stylish gay drama Postcards from London, led by rising British star Harris Dickinson.
McLean’s long-awaited follow-up to 1994’s Postcards from America is set to hit UK cinemas later this year and tells the story of a teenager (Dickinson) who finds himself getting involved with a gang of high class male escorts in London’s Soho.
21-year-old Dickinson, who dropped out of school at 17 to pursue a career in acting, previously made waves in last year’s moody gay drama Beach Rats, and has now added another LGBT film to his incresingly impressive CV.
Meanwhile, festival opener My Days of Mercy is billed as a “poignant love story between two women from vastly different backgrounds and opposing political views.”
Starring X-Men’s Ellen Page and Fantastic Four’s Kate Mara, the movie is the first from director Shalom-Ezer since her powerful 2014 debut Princess, which 12-year-old girl whose relationship with her mother’s boyfriend turns sexually abusive.
Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s Senior Programmer says: “It’s a pleasure to open this year’s Festival with My Days of Mercy, Tali Shalom-Ezer’s politically resonant and emotionally astute drama.
“This is bold and provocative filmmaking, featuring captivating performances from both Kate Mara and Ellen Page, the latter of whom continues to show such inspiring commitment to telling LGBT stories on screen”.
The full line-up for BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival will be announced on 21 February.
The festival will run from 21 March to 1 April 1 and will include 56 feature films, an expanded industry programme, selected films on BFI Player VOD service, a series of special events and archive screenings.