XXY

Sometimes is better not to read at all about a movie, as when you finally see it you miss some of the drama. I read a very brief synopsis of this movie when it was screened in Cannes, but have to say that it ruined for me as I already knew what was all about and it takes almost half hour to discoverer it in the movie. So I’m going to be very succinct when telling you about the story this movie tells.

The movie tells about discovering your sexuality at that difficult moment when you’re a teenager. Discovering if you like girls or boys is hard sometimes for some people, but when you are a 15-year-old hermaphrodite is absolutely difficult to make a choice in that sense and many others. Not often you see movies with this theme and just because of the theme I consider this movie a must be seen.

But even if there are some strong scenes this Lucia Puenzo film has a very sensitive treatment of its equally sensitive theme. The movie has its flaws and the acting is not perfect but is good, especially Ricardo Darin that plays her/his father. Then the story is so captivating that I didn’t noticed time and when was over I had the feeling that it started a moment ago and not the almost 90 minutes it runs.

There are some scenes with very nice cinematography and I feel that they tried to hard to tell the story as art cinema, which at times it feels like forced. Still there is sparse dialogue that allows enjoying some scenes with actors’ expressions and very nice silence, like when the three kids are at the beach with the fire.

The movie is still in the festival circuit but has already won several awards including the Critics Week Grand Prize and the Grand Golden Rail at the 2007 Cannes. It is also the Argentina official submission to the 2008 Oscar and the 2008 Spain's Goya Awards.

The movie definitively is gay interest and I’m wondering if I should say that is lesbian interest too, probably not. But, one thing is for sure this movie is about the fear of being different as the genital ambiguity is a metaphor for the fears of not being “normal”. Fears felt by the person considered as not “normal”, but mainly the fears that “normal” people feel for what they see as not normal.

Absolutely not for all audiences you have to like serious dramas and art cinema.

Enjoy!