The Visitor, directed by queer provocateur Bruce LaBruce, is inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 classic Teorema. In LaBruce’s re-imagining, the protagonist is a refugee who liberates the bourgeoisie from their sexual repression, upending their rigid, heteronormative world.

The film was released in the aftermath of Suella Braverman’s controversial speech in which she declared immigration a threat to the West, condemning multiculturalism and calling the 1951 Refugee Convention outdated. Her comments openly targeted women and LGBTQ+ refugees, painting them as undeserving of asylum.

In Pasolini’s original film, Terence Stamp plays a mysterious figure, “The Visitor,” who infiltrates an upper-class Milanese family, seducing each member in turn. The Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and Maid each represent Freud’s Family Romance — a neurotic symptom that drives sexual tensions within the family. LaBruce’s The Visitor pushes this concept further, with intense sexual scenes and transformative confessions. Through erotic and Oedipal interventions, the characters experience profound sexual and spiritual liberation, ultimately breaking free from societal repression.

There will be a Preview of The Visitor on 19 February, followed by a DJ set from Awkward Moments.