On re-release this month is Argentine
filmmaker Lucía Puenzo's XXY, the story of intersex teenager
Alex, played superbly by the young Inés Efron. Having been born
intersex and raised as a girl through the aid of hormone
replacements, Alex is forced at the onset of puberty to navigate a
way through the emotional and sexual minefield of her
gender.
Contrary to what the film's title would imply
- XXY is a chromosomal variation causing underdeveloped masculine
characteristics in men - Alex's intersex condition means that she
has both male and female genitals. To escape the judgment of
society Alex's parents have relocated to a small fishing village in
Uruguay and it is against the backdrop of this sparse yet turbulent
ecosystem that we first encounter her.
For reasons unexplained in the film, Alex has
recently stopped taking her medication, prompting her parents to
invite a surgeon and his family to stay at their home in the hope
of convincing Alex to make a decision about her future.
The surgeon's awkward and introverted son
Alvaro (Martín Piroyansky) becomes an unlikely love interest for
Alex, prompting her to explore her sexuality with semi-disastrous
consequences.
Puenzo has been hailed as a rising star in
LGBT cinema since XXY's original release in 2007. Her latest
project, lesbian flick El Niño Pez (The Fish
Child), saw her collaborating again with Efron, whose
performance as Alex in this film is faultless. At times she is
spiky and brooding, at times crass, as when on her first encounter
with Alvaro she accuses him of having just masturbated. Yet there
are times when she brings lightness and comic relief to an
otherwise sombre film.
Alex's father, known as 'Kraken' (Ricardo
Darín), is a marine biologist, and heavy use is made of the
symbolism of sea turtles, vulnerable to the threat of poachers, and
of clownfish which are hermaphroditic, developing first into males
and then females. At times the symbolism is laid on a little
thickly, but there is enough subtlety in the acting performances to
distract us.
Voyeurism is a recurrent theme, with
characters catching glimpses of each other nude or in compromising
situations either through accident or, in one traumatic scene, by
force. The power that self-exposure has for Alex has made her
hypersexualised and at times an exhibitionist. In spite of this,
beneath her thick skin she is deeply troubled by the silence and
shame surrounding her condition.
What is so poignant about this film is that,
to all the adults, Alex's dual gender is a cause of anxiety and
surgery to make her either male or female is seen by them as an
obvious way of removing a problem - for Alex, her intersexuality is
part of her identity and, despite her sexual confusion, her only
wish is for things to remain the same.
Fans of Céline Sciamma's recent release Tomboy
(2011) will find much to enjoy here, although where
Tomboy retains lightness and refrains from exploring deeply
into the consequences of society's rigid gender binary, XXY
approaches the subject with a darker, more provocative
tone.
There are relatively few films which represent
intersex people in a realistic and favourable way - a great many
portrayals of trans people tend towards the Pedro Almodóvar school
of melodrama and sensationalism. Those looking to find out more
about the intersex community should look to Phoebe Hart's
autobiographical documentary Orchids (2010), as well as
seeking out this daring modern classic of LGBT cinema.
XXY is re-released on DVD on 25 June
priced £12.99 Buy it now from www.divadirect.co.uk
