A unique queer horror set in Egypt with an Egyptian filmmaker and all Middle Eastern cast and crew, THE JUDGMENT follows a gay couple returning from the US to Egypt for a family emergency, which forces them back into the closet and to attempt to pass as just friends. As the pervasive tension of dangerous homophobia rises around them, they begin to fear that they have fallen prey to witchcraft as punishment for their “homosexual sins”, causing one of them to fall into religious terror and exposing his unhealed past.

Helen (Louise Brealey), a reserved, gentle woman, is slowly collapsing under the weight of her inexplicable life. She lives with her torpid husband and his much younger girlfriend (and their new colicky baby), working nights at the local chicken processing plant. There are two things that keep her hanging on: music, and her dear elderly mother-in-law Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), whom she cares for. This dismal state of affairs is interrupted when Joanne (Annabel Scholey), a former neighbour (and Helen’s schoolgirl crush), arrives back in town after her father’s death. His house holds difficult childhood memories for Joanne, of events that many on the street remember, but since she’s been away, she’s become unapologetic in facing down the small-town malice that’s slung at her. What begins as a casual meeting between the two women swiftly turns to friendship and then to love. Joanne is beguiled by Helen’s sweet naiveté, and Helen is in awe of Joanne’s courage and confidence. Their burgeoning relationship is threatened when Helen’s home life is further upended, accompanied by turbulence within the tight-knit group of women who work with her on the factory floor. Soon, Helen and Joanne each face a difficult, perhaps impossible, emotional choice about their futures.

Since the 1970s, lesbians from around the world have been drawn to the island of Lesvos, birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. When they find paradise in a local village and carve out their own lesbian community, tensions simmer with the local residents. With both groups claiming ownership of lesbian identity, filmmaker Tzeli Hadjidimitriou—a native and lesbian herself—is caught in the middle and chronicles 40+ years of love, community, conflict, and what it means to feel accepted.