XXY

Lucía Puenzo / Argentina, Spain & France / 2007 / 90 min
Inés Efron, Ricardo Darín, Germán Palacios, Carolina Peleritti, Martín Piroyansky

A teen drama with a huge twist - for Alex is a 15-year-old hermaphrodite.

Winner of the Cannes International Critics Week Grand Prize, this is an assured, beautiful debut from Argentinian writer/director Lucía Puenzo. Alex lives with her parents, whose reaction to her indeterminate gender has been to exile the family to a small island community. As she comes of age, her parents feel it is time for them to decide if she is to be a woman or a man. Her mother invites some old friends from Argentina to visit for the weekend - one of whom just happens to be a surgeon. They also bring their teenage son, who knows nothing of Alex's story but is intrigued by this tomboy. Ricardo Darin (Nine Queens, Kamchatka) delivers another brilliant performance as the father who - one way or another - is losing his wonderful little girl forever. 

There will be a discussion after the screening led by a member of the HSS Edinburgh Group.