Reel Affirmations: The Nation's LGBT Film Festival 2008

Women's Closing Night Film

Upper-class Margaret, mourning her father's recent death and her former lover's marriage - to her brother. Looking for diversion, ventures out of her protective world to become a "Lady Visitor" at a bleak women's prison, Millbank.

When she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Selina, an attractive young convict who channels spirits and the souls of the dead. She's also serving a long sentence after being convicted for murder, but she claims the murder was the work of one particularly strong and malicious spirit called Peter Quick.

. After an initial curiosity and attraction, their relationship builds slowly through Margaret's many visits, and her reservations begin to melt away. She becomes obsessed with her mysterious friend, and the pair begins to bristle under the watchful eyes of the prison guards, particularly the head matron, who suspects that the two women are "sweet on" each other.

Outside of Millbank, Margaret falls deeper and deeper under Selina's spell and begins to investigate Selina's murky history. Her family and friends tolerate her bizarre new interests to a point, but everyone would prefer that she marry and settle down as soon as possible.

Margaret, who is as much imprisoned by her gender and class as the mysterious Selina is by her bars and chains, soon discovers a world of secrets and shadows, heightened passions, and the allure of the supernatural. Based on the mystery romance novel by Sarah Waters, Affinity is more than a gloriously crafted period piece - it's at once a love story and a not-so-fond look back at the shackles of the Victorian era.