Girl

Lukas Dhont : 2018

Lara, a young teenage girl, is preparing to celebrate a key birthday, one that will mark the start of her transformation. Lara dreams of dancing and opera, and she is willing to put up any kind of fight necessary to make her dream come true. She trains her body, makes it more supple, punishes it and tries her best to make it bend. But her body is her enemy. Lara was born a boy. She puts up a daily struggle – the struggle of a dancer, and the struggle of a young woman in the making, as she is on the cusp of starting her treatment. But learning how to dance on pointe is a long road, just as it's a long and gruelling ordeal to transform one's body. During this transition period, Lara is supported by her loving and attentive father, and is supervised by a medical team that is at her beck and call and that is sincerely concerned about her well-being. But it is primarily her own impatience that she will have to grapple with. Concentrating on the personal journey of a young transgender woman, the film sensitively examines the inner torments haunting Lara. How, in the midst of one's teenage years, can one accept the prospect of a change so gradual that it never seems to be within reach? Lukas Dhont's feature debut was winner of the Award for Best Actor, the FIPRESCI Prize, the Queer Palm, and the Caméra d'Or when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.