As its prepares to make its world premiere in the World Fiction Competition section at the Los Angeles Film Festival, we have the exclusive first trailer for Play the Devil.
The movie, per the trailer, appears to be a moody and atmospheric drama that becomes steadily more intense. Here's the festival's official description:
Gregory, a gifted student from a working class family, is favorably positioned to win a coveted medical scholarship, and yet is secretly cultivating a desire to become a photographer. James, an established businessman, uses his wealth and access to pique the young man's latent artistic inclinations. When James cannot accept Gregory's boundaries, the relationship spirals into a fateful, carnal dance during the "Jab" (devil) play, on Carnival's Monday night.
Bursting with confidence, style and vision against the lush landscape of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival, Bahamian writer/director Maria Govan's sophomore feature complicates notions of masculinity, privilege and sexuality in this nuanced, yet brutal, coming-of-age portrait that deftly thwarts any easy moral judgments of her characters' actions and desires.
Petrice Jones, Gareth Jenkins, Akil Nicholas and Penelope Spencer star. The film will screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Saturday, June 4. Visit the festival site for more information. Watch the trailer below.