Rotterdam 2026 Review: I SWEAR Is The Ultimate Crowd Favorite

This year's winner of the Audience Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam is I Swear, Kirk Jones' biopic about John Davidson. To say it is a crowdpleaser is an understatement: from hundreds of votes, the film got a mean average of 4.8 out of 5. That means that on average, out of every five people, one voted a "4" (meaning good) and four voted a "5" (meaning excellent). So who is John Davidson and why is a film about him so popular?

To answer the first question: John Davidson is a man in Scotland who suffers from the Syndrome of Gilles de la Tourette, or Tourette's for short. It is a neurological disorder and means he has tics. Lots of tics. Bad ones. He grimaces. He spits. His right arm shoots out for no reason sometimes. But his worst tic is probably that he swears uncontrollably. You know when a thought pops up in your head and you think "I DEFINITELY shouldn't say that out loud"? John will say it. Racist stuff. Gross stuff. Sex stuff. It bubbles up and bursts out. And he cannot do anything about it.

Needless to say, this has made his life hell on occasion, especially in the 1980s when most people were unaware the condition even existed. Starting at age 13 and developing badly at 15, John is punished (mentally and physically), expelled from school, constantly chided for behavior he cannot help. Unable to study, unable to get a job, unable to get into a relationship... people kill themselves for less.

But the film about him starts with John being given an award by Queen Elizabeth II for his unending efforts to help people suffering from Tourette's, and then continues to explain how that came to be. It's quite a remarkable story, and if there is one thing to take away from it is that John was blessed with some fantastic friends. At age 26, more than 10 years after someone finally diagnosed he has Tourette's, John is a wreck. He is living with his mom, drugged to the gills to lessen the symptoms, when a chance encounter with an old classmate brings him into contact with Dottie, a nurse suffering from cancer. She not only knows what Tourette's is, she also knows the medication John takes. Recognizing that this is not the way to treat it, she teaches John how to stop with the drugs and, taking him in her household, provides him with a safe environment. It's the start of an upwards journey for John, one in which he blossoms, meets very helpful mentors and starts spreading awareness about Tourette's.

All of which could be just so much trite sappy feel-good nonsense in a biopic. But veteran director Kirk Jones deftly avoids all pitfalls, managing to make his film have emotional impact rather than a sentimental one. John is not shown as a saint (though he suffers like one) and the film hints that he has such fantastic friends because of his demeanour, a funny and benevolent man. Tourette's is never sugar-coated or played for laughs, though the absurdness of several situations it causes are inherently funny. Some situations are terrible as well, but instead of wallowing in the tragedy of it all, the film shows how people cope with it. It makes the film an upper instead of a downer.

And of course I need to praise actor Robert Aramayo here, who plays John. He is fantastic. He prepared for the role by living for months near the real John Davidson in the same town (Galashiels), spending a lot of time with the man, picking up the dialect, the mannerisms, the local life. I'm not Scottish so I can't say if he can pass for a real Gala-boy, but the effort does lead to a great performance. But everyone else is great as well. Nobody preaches, nobody gives rambling speeches. Exposition is given through witty remarks, dry comments, and damn great acting.

I'm not fond of biopics but I Swear is a crowdpleaser. It is also one of the best films of the year and I expect to see it pop up in some Top-10 lists later. Highly recommended (even if biopics are not your thing...)