David Turpin’s ‘Ancestors’ Revisits the AIDS Crisis at TIFF

David Turpin’s Ancestors will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, revisiting the late-1980s AIDS crisis in London through love, found family and the consoling power of movie stars, according to Variety’s report.

The Irish filmmaker’s character-driven story follows Beau (Éanna Hardwicke), an Irish immigrant seeking community and freedom, as he lives with his best friend Michelle (Jessica Reynolds) and works at a café run by Maurice (Rupert Everett). Maurice serves as an “auntie” figure to younger gay men and fills the café and his home with images of the screen stars he reveres.

The story changes when Tiny (Jack Wolfe) enters Beau’s life. Christina Hendricks plays one of Maurice’s beloved stars in a role Turpin describes as both real and metaphorical. Turpin also gave the cast cassette Walkmans with character-specific tapes, using music to evoke a period some younger performers had never experienced directly.

Turpin told Variety that the film grew from his sense of the crisis’s lasting absence, including elders who died or withdrew after being hurt by it. For Celebrity Trends Today’s global film audience, Ancestors is notable as both a TIFF premiere and a personal attempt to connect contemporary viewers with a generation shaped by the epidemic. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales.