xxy

xxy by argentinian director Luca Puenzo: one of the best films i've seen this year. i've been closed minded for several months now, only browsing in the french language category when choosing movies to watch, but i'm so happy i watched this spanish film. it's about a hermaphrodite and tumultuous relationship with a son of a surgeon who comes to look at her and see what he can do for her surgically. it touched me, not many films can these days. something new, reminded me of ma vie en rose, which is the french film about the transsexual 10 year old boy i saw when i was in middle school. not to be confused with la vie en rose about edith piaf. ma vie en rose is a play on the french phrase, life in pink, which essentially means a perfect rosy life. it's ironic in a way but also sentimentally sweet because for this little boy, his life is sugary sweet when he enters into his fantasies about being a girl to be "woken up" abruptly by the harsh truth of societal imposed gender roles which have infiltrated the schemas of all of his family members.

i'd give this 5 out of 5 stars. it's a very poetic way of portraying identity turmoil, and the polarity of gender. sometimes, there's no choice.