buygay.com

Review

Alex is not like other girls. A wild-eyed and gorgeously feral 15-year-old, she has a secret few can claim: she is intersexed. Though convincingly raised female, her parents keep her hidden away in a coastal village hoping that exile might shield her from the cruelties of the world. But her imposed gender role and isolation amongst the sandy mounds and the cold crashing tides has eaten away at the extraordinary teen’s once indomitable spirit. As puberty encroaches, she falls into severe withdrawal and refuses to take the medication that prevents her from masculinizing. In response, her mother covertly invites Buenos Aires’s top plastic surgeon for a visit, hoping to persuade Alex to elect female gender assignment surgery. The girl’s father, on the other hand, is enraged by the thought of anyone bullying his daughter. Consequently, when the surgeon arrives with his wife and teenaged son in tow, a geyser of complex emotions and excruciating conflicts erupts. Further complicating matters, the surgeon’s son Alvaro, currently questioning his sexuality, is magnetized to the double-gendered firecracker. Forming a highly charged connection, the youths speed down a road plagued with heartache and dilemma. Intimate, raw and keenly atmospheric, director Lucía Puenzo’s debut film masterfully explores explosive duality with tenderness and grace. (Spanish with English subtitles)

 -- Lissette Villanueva