Here we go! This will be my final post for Pride Month. But, as you can already see, Latin American cinema is brimming with queer narratives and this will not be the last one, to be sure. This film, though, is a fantastic way to end this series of recommendations because it feels rapturous… or at least the first time you experience it.
"XXY" is a radically empathetic film that delves into the complexities of intersex identity through the lens of a coming-of-age drama. At the heart of the story is Alex, a 15-year-old intersex individual navigating the tumultuous period of adolescence in a remote coastal town in Uruguay. The film is modern, even futuristic in its depiction of total and absolute parental acceptance and understanding, and not without contradictions.
The film's setting—a sparsely populated, rocky beach town—exteriorizes Alex's internal isolation. The muted, cool, blue cinematography by Natasha Braier creates a dynamic visual conversation: we’re in a calm, still, moorish ecosystem but one that has a allowed Alex to blossom into a courageous and self-possessed individual despite the town’s constant reminders of their “otherness.” This isn't a picturesque paradise but a place marked by abandonment and remoteness, which is what it feels like when you are on the fringes of society.
Alex's father - Kraken, a biologist - has seen Alex as unique, rare but perfect ever since they were born, embracing their identity with profound empathy. His deep respect for all living beings, allowing them to exist as they are, stands in diametric contrast with Suli’s perspective, Alex’ mom who is keen on having them undergo surgical sex assignment to live as female. This parental conflict elegantly dramatizes the central ideas of acceptance versus conformity. Kraken’s scientific mind positions him as a guardian of Alex's right to self-determination, while Suli’s desire for Alex to ultimately transition to female and fit into binary gender norms pulls this child to impossible extremes. This drives Suli to call on a plastic surgeon from Buenos Aires to come meet Alex, and asses their candidacy for gender assignment surgery. Dr. Ramiro arrives along with his wife and son, excitedly gazing at Alex like a creature in a museum. Alvaro, the son, also gawks at Alex, but with a curiosity reserved for those who awaken something unknown and exciting within you.
Puenzo uses recurrent imagery of innocent sea creatures butchered by human actions to draw a simile with Alex. Sea turtles are amputated to save their lives, both a metaphor and foreshadowing for how Alex might be "butchered" to fit into the gender binary construct. Alex, who wears a tag just like his father’s subjects do, is depicted as an innocent, special, and endangered being.
Alvaro’s shy curiosity drives him straight to Alex. And this curiosity is reciprocated tenfold, for Alex wishes nothing more than anything to have sex, to know what their body can do, to share the pleasure they know they can feel. And so in between small but intense moments, they start building this trust that flourishes in their inquisitiveness for each other’s experiences.
A fleetingly horrific scene unfolds when Alex walks in on Alvaro while he’s sketching a live beetle at the beach and Alex kills it. Alex might see this bug being used as a subject, encapsulating this idea of autonomy and the right to exist as one is, Alex's struggle against being treated as an object rather than a person, foreshadowing the mercy Alex will later seek for themselves. Better dead than an object of your fascination.
Spoilers ahead!
But this moment of rage and confusion only leads to a deeper magnetic attraction between two teens in search of themselves.
The film reaches a peak in its depiction of a tender and honest sex scene between Alex and Álvaro, this new and exciting traveler friend. This moment of discovery and mutual acceptance between the two is astonishingly sincere, curious, tender, free. Alex makes a clear choice to top Alvaro and to do it in such a way that he does not even get to see or touch Alex in way they may not want.
However, the intrusion of Alex's father, turning this moment into one of shame and sadness, let’s us in to understand how judgments corrupt pure human experiences.
The narrative takes an even darker turn when Alex is forcibly exposed and almost raped, a moment that dramatically shifts the tone of the film. This scene is deeply unsettling and introduces a violent rupture into what had been a beautifully sincere exploration of identity and acceptance. I truly hated this entire sequence, I didn’t want this gorgeously earnest and innocent film to be spoiled by this kind of violence, it literally turned my stomach. But it doesn’t mean it was any less truthful.
Now, “XXY" is not just a story about Alex's journey but also about their father's path to acceptance. It is a double coming-of-age tale, where Alex has already made a choice about their identity and their father must learn to let go of his own idea of what Alex should do and be, and support Alex's choice. You see Alex having already made this choice throughout the film. They stop taking their corticosteroids, making it rather clear that they want to express themselves as more masculine, which then triggers a panic in Alex’s mom, driving her to call on Dr. Ramiro. Ramiro himself is revealed to be a raging homophobe in a truly heartbreaking scene where his son Alvaro is left crushed by the knowledge that his father might despise him.
In the end, Alex’s does decides to actually show their genitals to Álvaro, in a powerful act of defiance and self-acceptance. Álvaro is left speechless, and then is dragged back from the depths of this reveal by Ramiro. Back into their car to return to the surfaces, back to the land where the magic of Alex can’t or won’t be allowed to exist. In a delightful subversion the expected narrative, the last imagine of this film is Alex hugged and flanked by her ultimately supporting father and mother, allowing them the freedom to make their own choice.
"XXY" is radical but open, unique but universal, truthful and nonjudgmental. Lucía Puenzo created a piece of living, breathing humanity made manifest. Inés Efron brings a sharp, intelligent and knowing edge to Alex balanced with by an elder wisdom and softness from Ricardo Darin’s performance as Kraken.
“XXY” won the Cartagena Film Festival in 2008 and the Critics Week Top Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. You can watch it for free with ads on Amazon Prime via Freevee.