This film is a genuinely moving story about courage, identity and inner freedom, centered on an intersex person trying to figure out who they really are. The fact that an actual intersex actor was cast in the lead role is genuinely worth applauding. It is apparently a remake of a classic film of same name that came out in 1972. Since I have not seen the film, I really have references to compare, which is good. Set in Spain, we meet Adela, a woman in her twenties and the only child of a conservative couple living in a small provincial town. Her days are mostly spent at the family antique shop, and her whole life has been shaped by her mother's overprotectiveness and total silence around her intersex condition, something she's faced real social discrimination for. Despite all the restrictions placed on her, she finds odd little pockets of normalcy in her life, and her closest connection is a gay priest, basically the only person she feels she can talk to freely. That quiet routi...
Set in Spain, we meet Adela, a woman in her twenties and the only child of a conservative couple living in a small provincial town. Her days are mostly spent at the family antique shop, and her whole life has been shaped by her mother's overprotectiveness and total silence around her intersex condition, something she's faced real social discrimination for. Despite all the restrictions placed on her, she finds odd little pockets of normalcy in her life, and her closest connection is a gay priest, basically the only person she feels she can talk to freely. That quiet routine shifts when two new people show up in her world. A male friend returns from London with a crush on her, and the two end up sharing a kiss. Around the same time a lively lesbian physiotherapist enters the picture, and being around her is the first time Adela actually feels free and like herself. But underneath all of this she's still wrestling with what her gender and sexual identity even are. So when she catches the physiotherapist kissing another woman, it genuinely breaks her. Things hit a real breaking point when she discovers the truth about her intersex condition, including that her parents had her undeveloped testicles removed without ever asking her. That's the moment everything she believed about herself falls apart, and it kicks off her real journey of self discovery. She moves to Madrid and starts living as a man, going by AD. There she finds a group of genuinely supportive friends spanning the whole LGBTQIA+ spectrum, people who help AD work through and accept his real identity. An unexpected job with an aging dominatrix becomes a turning point, pushing AD into a process of self discovery that's tangled up with both confusion and guilt in equal measure. When the lesbian woman from his hometown comes back into his life, that old connection rekindles. The film closes on a high note, with AD walking confidently and freely the morning after a pride parade.
One thing that really stuck with me is how kind almost everyone around Adela turns out to be, aside from her own family. Even the village priest ends up being far more open minded than most people around him. Honestly, the priest's handful of scenes were some of my favorite moments in the whole film, they bring this quiet sense of stability to everything. The people in AD's life, like the pansexual couple he shares an apartment with and the dominatrix who shows him real kindness, end up becoming this mirror that helps him accept himself. Those moments bring real warmth that actually deepens the more emotional scenes around them. The whole film pushes the idea that identity isn't something you box up, it's something you actually live through. And even if you've never personally dealt with the specific complexities intersex people face, it's still really easy to connect with this character. From the discomfort of social situations to the tension she feels around her own family, the emotions on display feel genuinely real throughout. The overall tone shifts gradually from melancholy toward something hopeful and affirming.
The film begins with Adela and ends with AD, and really the only thing that changes between those two points is the confidence and self understanding around body and identity. The lead actor in this role is honestly perfect for the part. Beyond just the physical shifts between presenting male and female, the performance captures the emotional confusion and inner turmoil with so much delicacy, almost like she's sharing her own lived experience just to tell other people, it's okay, I've been there too. (7/10)
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