Sundance-Bound ‘Layla’ Director on Telling the Story of a British-Palestinian Drag Queen, Working With Emerald Fennell, Russell T. Davies (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Writer and director Amrou Al-Kadhi shares many similarities with the eponymous protagonist of their directorial debut “Layla,” a drama about how a drag queen’s first love influences their sense of self.

Al-Kadhi speaks exclusively to Variety ahead of the world premiere of “Layla” Thursday in Sundance Film Festival‘s World Cinema Dramatic Competition. (Watch an exclusive clip below.) Both Al-Kadhi and Layla are British of Arab descent — Al-Kadhi being British-Iraqi and Layla British-Palestinian — and both are non-binary and perform in drag.

The director is used to blurring the lines between the personal and the fictional, rooting their drag persona Glamrou in first-hand experience as a queer Arab in Britain and having written award-winning “Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen.” Al-Kadhi emphasizes that, as an artist, it is important to prod into the personal so they can create work that “resonates with people,” but reiterates that “Layla” is a work of fiction. “‘Layla’ is born out of a lot of my own struggles and thinking and feelings, but I built a fictional world for this character to exist in to make an entertaining and accessible movie that resonates with audiences.” The film’s Sundance premiere marks the culmination of a long creative journey.

Developed and financed by Film4 and the BFI and produced by Al-Kadhi’s longtime contributor Savannah James-Bayly of Fox Cub Films, “Layla” has been in the works since 2018. “Getting a film greenlit is a long process, especially for a first film.