Girl King
Ileana Pietrobruno, director.
Canada, 2002, 16mm, 80 min.

Part lesbian sexcapade, part swashbuckling adventure and part romantic love story, Girl King is a completely original drag king pirate film. In this proud, audacious flaunt of butch sexuality, gender-bending pirates roam the seas in search of the Queen's lost treasure - her stolen koilos.

Having failed once again to retrieve the koilos, the macho pirate captain attempts to appease the Queen's murderous wrath by offering her his handsome prisoner, Butch. The Queen easily seduces Butch but at the last moment, Butch refuses to submit. Although furious at his rejection, the Queen knows that anyone able to resist her charms must be a true top, and maybe top enough to find her koilos.

The Queen promises Butch that, in exchange for her treasure's safe return, she will grant Butch her heart's desire - the beautiful femme Claudia. What butch doesn't know is Claudia has disguised herself to join the men-only adventure. But as the pirates search for the Queen's koilos, the hard and fast rules begin to blur. The theft has confused the natural order of attraction and chaos reigns: tops are bottomed, femmes are flirting with femmes, butches are falling for butches.

It's a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of lube for this sexy cast as they walk the plank and roam the high seas. Pietrobruno has skillfully created a gender bending and genre blending tale that manages to be irreverent on all fronts, poking fun and at once giving insight into the complex and often fraught realms of queer identity politics.

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