Avant-Drag!

A truly beautiful and poignant piece of queer filmmaking and a powerful tribute to the resilience and creativity of the queer scene in Athens. Just wow!

The film's avant-garde, magical realist style elevates it well beyond typical documentaries. It masterfully interweaves surrealism with gritty realism, highlighting pressing social issues like gentrification, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia. This juxtaposition underscores the harsh realities faced by the community while celebrating the transformative and imaginative power of drag.

Ok, I'm a bit biased because Athens is the place I grew up, and I connected with the film on a very personal level. But I honestly believe its themes concern us all, and it's rare to see such creative energy poured into a documentary.

Gender is performed, invisibly, until its conventions are broken. It is the disturbance of gender that frightens and repels the majority, and subsequently rejects, exotifies and ultimately endangers those who question it. The act of disturbance puts the finger right in the wound.

A film that left me speechless for a long time, in the best ways possible. Courageous and bold, and never shying away from its intentions, it puts the finger in the wound right where we need it. And you don't need to look so much closer to see what's also there, blatantly: Love and community. Hope and Despair. Everything that makes us human. An astounding, brilliantly crafted portrait.