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May 30th 2017

Victim

Victim

ITV Studios' Victim will return to cinemas on 21 July as one of the key titles in the BFI's Gross Indecency season; a summer programme exploring the pioneering depictions of LGBT life in British film in the years immediately before and after the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

Victim is an exposé of London's gay subculture and its associated criminal underworld - shocking on its first release, poignant and powerful today. Director Basil Dearden couples controversial subject matter and a strong genre slant to create a thriller that is both politically compelling and dramatically taut, while Dirk Bogarde sheds his matinée idol image with a bold performance that would initiate the actor's second life as a performer in challenging, subversive roles.

Victim

Victim

Hiding in plain sight, the LGBT community of 1960s London call Soho their home. This cloistered group live in fear of persecution and under the shadow of blackmail; in a world where gossip spreads through whispered conversations and meaningful glances in crowded bars, where compromising photographs circulate in anonymous envelopes, and where young men are found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Enter Melville Farr: a successful barrister - and a married man - who is drawn into a murder enquiry involving a former acquaintance. As Farr finds himself increasingly implicated in the case, he becomes determined to catch those responsible and refuses to meekly accept his peers' pact of silence and role as victim.

Reissued as one of the key titles in Gross Indecency, ITV Studios' Victim returns to cinemas nationwide on 21 July.