Queer Cinema Club #15: Orlando

Poster creation: André Barnett

Orlando (1992) is a gem of queer cinema — a film in constant metamorphosis, much like its central character. Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel, it’s a work that moves through time, gender, and identity, challenging fixed categories and linear narratives.

Sally Potter crafts an elegant meditation on gender, history, and social performance, led by a magnetic Tilda Swinton — both distant and deeply human. Orlando travels through centuries and across genders without ever losing their curious gaze on the world, as if fully existing meant constantly reinventing oneself.

With stylized direction, playful shifts in tone, and a narrative that breaks the fourth wall, Orlando reminds us that queerness is not just a subject or subtext — it’s a way of seeing, of telling stories, and above all, of living.