- Price £10.50, concessions £9.50
- Get ready for this era-changing suspense thriller from Basil Dearden
- Bring along friends that will appreciate the film's original tagline: "A Daring Picture About the World's Most Un-talked About Subject"
- Surf to Tickets
- See you at Barbican
A prominent lawyer goes after a blackmailer who threatens gay men with exposure.
Now considered to be one of the most LGBT-friendly places in the world, it may be jarring to some that homosexuality was only decriminalised in the UK in 1967.
One of the catalysts for this progress was Victim, known to be the first film in the English language to use the word “homosexual” and to feature a romance between two men. If there’s any question on the magnitude effect cinema can have on our lives, one only has to look at the impact films have had in perpetuating stereotypes of marginalised communities.
Synonymous with this is the powerful potential cinema has in shedding light at minorities and the injustices faced, bringing the need for change to the fore. Dirk Bogarde stars as the lead character struggling with blackmail, in this suspenseful thriller, set in shadowy London.
Reflecting the paranoia and mood of the time, the film is declared by its director Basil Dearden as an “open protest” against the criminalisation of homosexuality.
Cinema has lent itself as a medium for minorities and the dispossessed to challenge their marginality through storytelling. Victim is presented as part of Barbican’s The Battle for Representation series.
