XXY
Screening: Monday 26 October 2009
Argentina/France/Spain 2007.Director: Lucia Puenzo.
Starring: Richardo Darin, Ines Efron, Martin Piroyanski.
Subtitles.
Certificate: 15. 91 minutes.
Synopsis
It is not immediately clear why parents Kraken(Richardo Darin) and Suli (Valeria Bertuccelli) have moved with their daughter Alex (Ines Efron) from Argentina to a remote fishing community in Uruguay. Alex looks and sounds like a girl - albeit tomboyish and angular- but she reacts aggressively to the curiosity of a male friend by giving him a bloody nose.Alex is intersexed or hermaphrodite as it was named. She has undergone hormone therapy throughout childhood but as the emotional challenges of puberty kick in she feels ever more alienated. For reasons she probably does not fully understand herself she has stopped taking medication. At the centre of the film is the difficulty that Alex faces in deciding and being asked to decide what her future should be.
Marine biologist Kraken studies sea turtles, giant squid and clownfish, the latter with particular interest in their sequential hermaphrodism. The connection is too obvious but the point is made - these things happen in nature.
The village teenagers are quick to sense that Alex is different and this makes them cruel. When friends of her parents visit she begins a nervous flirtation with their skinny, buck-toothed son Alvaro (Martin Piroyanski). This leads to an exploratory encounter that leaves both them and us bemused.
This is a thoughtful film that goes far beyond the plight of Alex and the reactions and decisions of those around her. It is also an exploration of families and unspoken anxieties everywhere.
2007 Cannes Film Festival Critics Week Grand Prize awarded to director Lucia Puenzo.
