Finsbury Park’s Club Room is a welcoming, social event space with cabaret-style seating and tables, ready for you to enjoy a curated food and drink menu. Doors will open 30 minutes before your event’s advertised start time, leaving plenty of time to get comfortable and place any orders. Please be aware that table service will take place during your event, and that as each table seats four, you may be seated with other guests.

THE LURE: 10TH ANNIVERSARY aka Córki dancingu (2015)

• Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
• Featured special makeup effects: Marcin Kedzierzawski, Tomasz Matraszek
• Cast: Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Kinga Preis
• Film: 92mins | Polish | Subtitles | Intermission
• Event: Doors 6pm | Intro + Film 6:30pm – 9pm [18+]

Mermaid sisters emerge from the water to become nightclub singers in 1980s Poland.

Continuing our ‘Queer Monstrosity’ sidequest, BAR TRASH celebrates the 10^th Anniversary of a genre-defying horror-musical mashup THE LURE aka Córki dancingu (2015), the unforgettable feature debut of Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska.

The film follows a pair of carnivorous mermaid sisters drawn ashore to explore life on land in an alternate 1980s Poland. Their tantalising siren songs make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers. A coming of age fairytale with a catchy synth-fuelled soundtrack, outrageous song and dance numbers, and lavishly grimy sets, THE LURE is a viscerally sensual, refreshingly queer, and darkly feminist twist on bisexual author Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. 

“THE LURE… douses the pages of Anderson’s timid tale with kerosene and sets them on fire, recasting the heroine as two teenage sister mermaids and giving them back their voices, their agency, and their teeth.”

Angela Lovell

Mermaids — and if we’re being binary, Mermen — are ancient half-human half-fish beings that have their gender fluid origins in many world cultures and “have existed since the dawn of storytelling” (Sacha Coward, Queer As Folklore). They have become a “universal symbol that contemporary queer people use to express themselves” (ibid) from Howard Sherman’s gay authorship of Disney’s LITTLE MERMAID, to pioneering trans youth rights charity, Mermaids.

Polite notice: We are projecting THE LURE in Polish with English language subtitles from the best available digital source.

/// BAR TRASH is a celebration of cult and curious cinema, hosted by queer film fanatic Token Homo and friends. Films are served with introductions, intermissions, prize giveaways, and subtitles / captions where possible. Tickets £8 / £5 for PH members. Adults 18+ only. Follow @tokenhomo on Instagram for updates. More info at tokenhomo.com ///