I honestly think I woke up this morning with a new film added to my favourites category. John and I went to watch I Swear yesterday evening, and I don’t think I have been to a more powerful, rewarding film in a long, long time. It is the story of a man with Tourettes syndrome in the eighties, and as such it is essentially a film about disability and disability acceptance: we watch a young man with fairly severe Tourettes, John Davidson, growing up in a small Scottish town. It would be impossible not to find the amount of discrimination and bullying we see John face compelling, from the arrogant mockery he gets from other kids to loosing an opportunity to play football as a goalkeeper.

It becomes clear quite early in the film that John faces a hard, marginalised life. But where the film succeeds, rather magnificently, is in the emphasis it puts on the fact that all John really needs is understanding. He doesn’t need to ‘get better’, he doesn’t need a cure; all he needs is for people to understand his Tourettes (he refuses to call it a disability). He just needs people to understand that he can’t help his involuntary tics, they are just part of who he is, and are nothing to mock or worry about. As such, I Swear is one of the best pieces of disability representation and inclusion I have seen in a long, long time. It avoids the nasty temptation to make fun of John’s condition, handling the subject tenderly and with great humanity.

The film indeed opens with a shot of John receiving his MBE in 2019, a testimony to his fortitude, and all in all the film leaves the viewer extremely gratified and uplifted. There is sometimes a tendency for films like this to wallow in pity, but I Swear quite expertly avoids it, leaving the viewer uplifted, satisfied and enlightened. It is the story of a man overcoming horrendous persecution to achieve his potential, as well as his education of those around him to achieve enlightenment, and as such I now think it is definitely one of the ‘must see’ films of the season.