100 Nights of Hero review – Emma Corrin leads a star-studded cast in a strange tale with a dangerous streak | London Film Festival 2025

CJulia Jackman follows the Bonus Track with this whimsical fairy tale that has a streak of seriousness to go along with the romantic energy and gorgeous costumes from designer Susie Coulthard. It’s adapted by Jackman from Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel of the same title, and is loosely inspired by Scheherazade and One Thousand and One Nights — and I think also by Julie Dash, Peter Greenaway, and perhaps Agnès Varda’s play One Hundred and One Nights. Starring Emma Corrin and Maika Munro, supported by Nicholas Galitzine and Amir El Masry; Charli xcx makes an appearance, and there’s also an interesting little cameo by critic Sophie Monks Kaufman. It lives up to the beloved film, a bit corny but unexpectedly accurate – although the meta-level of storytelling sometimes has the disorienting effect for me of shutting down and dissipating all-important narrative energy.

We are in a medieval fantasy world created by the god Birdman (Richard E. Grant). Or rather, the world that his daughter Kiddo (Safiya Oakley-Green) originally envisioned as a heterosexual utopia, but then subverted by Birdman in a fit of sexism. In this place, women are not allowed to read or write, but they are allowed to tell stories, and it is this skill that distinguishes the maid Hero (Corinne), who waits for the shy, sad noblewoman, Cherie (Monroe), and becomes her best friend.

Cherie’s rude husband, Jerome (Al-Masry), has failed to get her pregnant, and he is angry at the claim of his friend Manfred (Galitzen), who loves women, that he can seduce Cherie if he feels like it. So Jerome challenges him to do it as a bet for the next hundred days while he goes away “on business.” It becomes the hero’s task to distract Manfred with fantastic stories, so exciting that they will charm, tease, and baffle him away from his motives. But are Jerome’s motives more complex than they seem?

Manfred Galitzen is an arrogant, weary character who arrogantly describes the protagonist as a “woman of many talents,” although this is not exactly how the non-binary Korine portrays the character. However, he achieves something almost like Beauty and the Beast’s sympathy as he pursues Cherry – but it is the hero who has the strongest claim to Cherry’s innocent heart, not only through storytelling but through dramatic role-playing, as she demonstrates what Cherry can expect from a truly adoring suitor. Gender, sexuality, status and power are all in flux here, a playful effect that is withdrawn when we reach sacrificial seriousness. It’s a beautiful tale that floats self-consciously off the screen.