Pillion
2025 • 107m • English With Subtitles • 18
Harry Lighton’s provocative BAFTA-nominated debut follows a shy man drawn into a leather-clad biker subculture and an intense BDSM relationship that reshapes his identity.
Darkly funny, emotionally raw and defiantly queer, it explores desire, control and belonging with disarming honesty.
Cruising in Bromley, bringing kink to Crockenhill and skinny-dipping by lavender fields outside Sevenoaks, the film grounds its subcultural journey in distinctly Kentish landscapes situating rural-suburban borderlands as a seedbed for boundary-testing desires – and the conflicts that arise from their domestication.
Rating: Contains strong sex, nudity and BDSM themes.
★★★★★ – Time Out
★★★★★ – The Upcoming
★★★★★ – Attitude
★★★★ – The Telegraph
“A Wild Ride” ★★★★★ – Evening Standard
“This Year’s Biggest Cinematic Surprise” – Loud and Clear
“Sexy” – ID
“A Real Love Story…Brilliant” ★★★★ – The Guardian
“Strange, Beautiful and Sexy” – IndieWire
“A Salty-Sweet Directorial Debut” – Vulture
“Hilarious and Moving” ★★★★ – The Times
“Disarmingly Poignant” – Vanity Fair
“Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling are Fearless” – The Hollywood Reporter
Screened in a double bill with Ceremony (3 min)
20:30, Saturday 21 March 2026
Screen 4, The Ashford Cinema
Shown with Ceremony (3 min)
Doors at 20:20
Credits
Director(s)
Harry Lighton
Writer(s)
Harry Lighton
Adam Mars-Jones
Producer(s)
Clare Binns
Lucy Drury
Mark Gooder
Director of Photography
Nick Morris
Composer
Oliver Coates
Editor
Gareth C. Scales
Production Designer
Francesca Massariol
Costume Designer
Grace Snell
Casting
Kahleen Crawford
Principle Cast
Harry Melling
Alexander Skarsgård
Douglas Hodge
Lesley Sharp
Jake Shears
Meet The Artist
Harry Lighton is a British filmmaker whose debut feature, Pillion, premiered to acclaim after winning Best Screenplay in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.
His earlier work includes award‑nominated short films such as Wren Brothers, and he previously honed his craft working with director Oliver Hermanus on Living (2022) and as 2nd Unit Director on Mary & George.
Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars‑Jones’s Box Hill, has earned Lighton multiple accolades, including a DGA nomination and BAFTA nods, establishing him as a distinctive new voice in British cinema.
