Cherub (2024)

Written and Directed by DEVIN SHEARS (St. John’s / Toronto)

Starring BENJAMIN TURNBULL *


*Join us for a special onstage Q&A with Benjamin Turnbull following the performance !

Saturday, November 8, 2025 | 12:00pm - 1:45pm

Arts Court Theatre | 73 minutes

Get Tickets

“…The slight 73-minute Cherub, which was made for $10,000 but still looks better than many movies made for hundreds of times the budget. Featuring textured frames, deliberate blocking and a joyful sense of colour and light, this is a visually alive work of art.. powerfully immerses us into Harvey’s specific reality — giving voice to the types of people rarely given their own cinematic portrayals. A small movie with a huge empathetic core. … Invisibility is not so much a reality of fatness but an internal state of mind, perpetuated by a lack of self-confidence and the negativity of conventional representation; once seen, once loved, once appreciated, a fat body can be an immense source of strength. Devin Shears’ tender debut Cherub (2024) understands all this and more, using the simplicity of its storytelling to unfurl its precise message of love and acceptance, both inside and out.”
Redmond Bacon - Journey Into Cinema.

Cover illustration of a magazine titled 'Cherub' featuring a child with wings, glasses, a halo, and a striped shirt. The cover mentions it's summer 1999, for adults only, and costs $2.50. The magazine includes references to film festival awards and features Benjamin Turndull, with a film by Devin Shears.
A man dressed as an angel, with a fluffy white halo, angel wings, and no shirt, holding a bouquet of pink roses, standing in front of vertical striped wallpaper.
People playing ice hockey on an indoor rink at night, with one person skating and another in a brown jacket reaching towards a hockey puck.

Harvey is a chubby, single man approaching middle age, watching the world move without him and yearning for some form of connection. Working as a lab technician and living alone, he is stuck in a cycle of routine monotony, spending his days all but invisible to those that he encounters. So when he comes across Cherub, a gay magazine for “big men and their admirers” and their call for a new “Cherub of the Month”, a spark is ignited in him - the chance to give something, to be seen, and to be desired.

Almost entirely dialogue-free, Cherub is a gentle film that takes it’s time in exploring all the nooks and crannies of Harvey’s life through long, observational tableaus and an understated yet dynamic performance from newcomer Benjamin Turnbull.

After the screening, stay for our Q&A with Benjamin!

Cherub Trailer

Director

A man with a red beard, wearing a pink cap and a white T-shirt with a raccoon graphic, smiling outdoors in front of a tree during dusk.

Devin Shears

Devin Shears is a filmmaker from St. John's, Newfoundland currently living in Toronto. His past work has played at VIFF, The Atlantic Film Festival, and Antimatter, among others. Cherub is his first feature film, made as part of his MFA Thesis at York University.