Aiman Rahim – a Cardiff-based Pakistani writer, performer and community organiser – writes for Buzz, on behalf of Film Hub Wales, on a movie which draws on a pool of Welsh creative talent and which depicts the blossoming romance between a car mechanic and a drag queen…
Unicorns is a love story by Egyptian-Welsh filmmaker from Swansea, Sally El Hosaini, and her co-director James Krishna Floyd. Set in London, it stands alongside recent movies like Joyland, and upcoming documentary India’s 1st Best Trans Model Agency – created, like Unicorns, by Welsh talent – as queer South Asian stories on the big screen.
The movie’s lead characters, mechanic Luke (Ben Hardy) and drag queen Aysha (Jason Patel), couldn’t be more different. Yet together, they both find liberation from their community’s toxic masculine expectations. The film highlights the ever-present gender and sexual fluidity in South Asian culture through Aysha’s character: that fluidity is made clear without her ever needing to label or explain her gender, even in answer to Luke’s question, “What are you?”
El Hosaini and Floyd worked on Unicorns with Asifa Lahore: often described as the UK’s first Muslim drag queen, and one who has previously described receiving acid attack threats as a result of her public status, Asifa was an inspiration for elements of the story. When Aysha shows Luke the abusive texts and emails she receives, his eyes open to his own violent upbringing: for this viewer, it reflected real-life experiences with cis men stuck between upholding their oppressive conditioning and breaking free from it.
Despite Unicorns showing us the ‘gaysian’ scene through Luke’s eyes, there are plenty of moments queer South Asian viewers will particularly appreciate. My personal favourite Easter eggs were the Princess Diana references – South Asians and the Welsh love our Lady Di! – and the Mujras Aysha performs are also a nod to South Asian queer heritage. Historically performed for wealthy patrons by skilled courtesans or dancers, Mujras were criminalised as an artform during the British occupation of India, but live on in the South Asian gender non-conforming community and across the diaspora. Moreover, Aysha’s costumes and dance moves in certain scenes share the aesthetics of Bollywood: the artistic muse of many gaysians, with plenty of mainstream Indian music and dance traceable to South Asia’s queer community.
For a Welsh South Asian audience, Unicorns increases the already growing appetite for our stories to be told on screen. We are shown Aysha’s life as a new, exciting adventure – yet to some of us, this world is already familiar. Scenes depict her praying alone for her own faith, as well as with her family: rare to see on the big screen, but sending a message some viewers will already know well, that being queer and being Muslim aren’t mutually exclusive.
It is refreshing to see a family that is neither unconditionally accepting nor irredeemably awful, but somewhere else entirely: loving and caring in every way they understand, just not in the way Aysha needs. This is a more realistic representation than the extremes. Complex, emotionally gut-wrenching relationships with mothers are common in the queer South Asian community: Unicorns’ scenes of Aysha doing her mum’s kohl, listening to music together and watching Bollywood films could be the basis for a movie on their own.
Aysha’s friends reminded me of the bold, out-there gaysians who, just by existing, show baby queers that living as our authentic selves and being loved by a community is possible. A movie which starts so many conversations, made by a successful Welsh director, brings with it anticipation that more works, delving deeper into such relationships, will follow.
Unfortunately, our representation often falls far too short of the stunning, infinite variety we exist in. As our society battles against increasing Islamophobia and queerphobic violence, the need for good representation and participation in the arts also increases.
Unicorns is released on Fri 5 July.
Info: here
words AIMAN RAHIM
This article was commissioned by Film Hub Wales as part of its Made In Wales project, which celebrates films with Welsh connections, thanks to funding from Creative Wales and the National Lottery via the BFI.
