Femme 2024

Jules has just finished one of his shows at an East London nightclub and steps outside to smoke, only to realize he’s out of cigarettes. He spots a heavily tattooed young man, Preston, watching him from afar before Preston abruptly slips away. Later, Jules goes into a convenience shop to buy cigarettes while in full drag and encounters Preston again, now flanked by a group of friends. They hurl homophobic slurs at Jules, who nonchalantly points out that Preston was checking him out. Enraged, Preston follows Jules out of the shop and brutally assaults him.

Three months pass. Jules has stopped performing drag and becomes increasingly reclusive. One night, he visits a gay sauna and unexpectedly runs into Preston, who does not recognize him out of drag. Jules follows him to the changing room, where Preston invites him back to his flat. Jules agrees, and the two begin to have sex, but Preston’s friends arrive and interrupt the encounter. Jules borrows Preston’s fake designer hoodie—the one Preston wore during the assault—and pretends he’s there to buy drugs, slipping out after leaving Preston his phone number. He then decides to exact revenge by filming their sexual encounter and posting it online.

Jules soon starts dating Preston, and their sexual relationship continues with Preston enjoying a dominant role. On one occasion, Preston notices Jules filming their sessions on his phone and takes the device, deleting the footage. The couple reconciles and has sex again, though the dynamic is less aggressive.

One night, Jules heads toward Preston’s flat when Preston’s friends arrive and disrupt their plans. Jules is invited to spend time with them and ends up going to a bar with the group. Throughout the night, Jules quietly flirts with and teases Preston, eventually guiding them back to Jules’s house, where Jules begins to dominate Preston with his consent and films the act.

The next day, Preston shares a quiet breakfast with Jules’s two roommates, one of whom secretly invites him to Jules’s upcoming birthday celebration, where Jules will perform in drag for the first time since the assault. As Preston prepares to leave, he shares a kiss with Jules. Jules contemplates posting the footage online but ultimately decides against it. On the night of the party, Preston arrives with a present for Jules and asks a roommate to look after it. Unbeknownst to him, Jules performs in drag in front of an audience, describing the tale of a “gay basher” he has seduced. Preston finally realizes that Jules is the drag queen who assaulted him months earlier, and panic overtakes him.

Preston ambushes Jules backstage, revealing that he knows who Jules is and pressing him for answers about who has seen the footage. Jules explains that he has not shown anyone and had reconsidered after getting to know Preston. The two clash in a brutal confrontation that nearly ends with Preston strangling Jules, but Preston collapses in tears and releases him. Battered and bloodied, Jules leaves Preston sobbing and returns home to find Preston’s gift-wrapped hoodie sitting on his bed. He opens it and discovers an authentic designer hoodie meant to replace the fake one Jules had taken from Preston earlier.