Pillion

Harry Lighton’s debut is an examination of love, experienced through a body that has never experienced love before. Though the world of fetishes and kink culture is likely a new frontier for many a casual filmgoer, Pillion combines these two themes in a way that is comprehensible, moving, funny, and at times pretty rough. Of course, that is often what a first love feels like.

Harry Melling, previously better known for a different sort of movie, and the “impossibly handsome” Alexander Skarsgård form a perfect duo for exploring leather culture. Awkward Colin, still living with his parents, blooms into an eager sub under the grunted commands of the emotionally closed off (to an almost Finnish extent) Ray, starting with some bootlicking on the first date.

Colin’s curious parents (the brilliant Douglas Hodge and Leslie Sharp) have just enough time for a brief doorway glimpse of the new boyfriend, before Colin is whisked off for his first sleepover of many. Jake Shears of cult disco group Scissor Sisters is seen in a supporting role as Kevin, a fellow submissive.

Lighton handles his topic effortlessly, from a barbershop quarter Christmas concert to an orgiastic summer picnic. Though there’s endless opportunity for graphic sex scenes, in the end, sex is not what Pillion is about.

The film received a seven minute standing ovation at the 2025 Cannes film festival, and Lighton took home the Best Screenplay award in the Un Certain Regard section.

Johanna Siik (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)