Avant-Drag!

Fil Ieropoulos / Greece / 2024 / 92 / English subtitles
Monday Sep 30 at 18.30, Allhelgonakyrkan

Avant-Drag! paints portraits of ten drag artists of varying gender expressions and sexualities who take to the streets of Athens to queery, problematise and (yes, please!) undermine social structures. Employing wildly imagined personas – like riot housewives and Albanian turbo-folk girls – who perform acts as revolutionary as praising abortion and as charming as drawing childish pictures, these artists call for social justice by taking aim at conservatism, patriarchy, patriotism, racism and sexism.

A line from the film’s exquisite punk-poetic narration describes this impulse perfectly: it’s “a demand to change the world that comes from the past, looking straight into the future.” And, lest you be concerned, have no fear that there is no shortage of gloriously outlandish outfits and towering high-heeled boots. This is drag, after all!

Avant-Drag! is equally entertaining as thought provoking. Equally sparkling as political. Avant-Drag! is the opening film of Cinema Queer 2024!

This screening is free, but fully booked.