COMING SOON
I Swear
Diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a child in 1980s Scotland, John Davidson grows up navigating isolation, misunderstanding and resilience. Based on the real-life subject of the landmark documentary John’s Not Mad, the film follows his journey from a troubled youth to an advocate raising awareness and redefining how others see his condition.
Director
Kirk Jones (My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2)
Actors
Robert Aramayo • Peter Mullan • Maxine Peake • Shirley Henderson • Scott Ellis Watson
2h 00m • Rated RP13 • Drama, Biography • UK
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I Swear
All tickets must be prepaid online or at the counter.
Sales are subject to our cancellation policy. No phone bookings
ncp - no complimentary passes
cap - captioned for hard of hearing
Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and later recognised at the BAFTAs, the film arrives with both pedigree and purpose. Robert Aramayo leads with a performance that avoids easy sentiment, capturing the rhythm, frustration and unexpected humour of John’s experience, while Peter Mullan and Maxine Peake ground the story in something recognisably human. There’s a quiet confidence to the way the film unfolds — serious when it needs to be, disarmingly warm when it chooses — and it leaves behind something more lasting than a conventional biopic: a shift in perspective.
Film Notes
A moving, award-winning portrait of resilience, humour and being heard.
In 1989, the BBC documentary John’s Not Mad introduced audiences to a young Scottish boy whose Tourette’s syndrome made him both visible and misunderstood in equal measure. I Swear returns to that story decades later, with director Kirk Jones shaping it into a full-scale biographical drama. Beginning in the Borders town of Galashiels, the film traces John Davidson’s early struggles through school, family life and social stigma, before widening its lens to follow his adult life — one shaped not by limitation, but by advocacy and determination.