XXy (2007)

For just about everybody, adolescence means having to confront a number of choices and life decisions, but rarely any as monumental as the one facing 15 year-old Alex (Ines Efron,) who was born an intersex child. As Alex begins to explore her sexuality, her mother invites friends from Buenos Aires to come for a visit at their house on the gorgeous Uruguayan shore, along with their 16-year-old son Álvaro (Martin Piroyanski.) Alex is immediately attracted to the young man, which adds yet another level of complexity to her personal search for identity, and forces both families to face their worst fears. Product Description

Making choices when there is no choice

Being adolescent is hard enough. This film touches up on much more complex issues. What can parents do to help their child choose his/her sex when that child has both? When a person is born with both sexual organs, most parents decide the sex of the child shortly after birth. But Alex's parents felt that is should be their child who should decide their sex. Alex is raised as a girl. But puberty is bringing some hard decision for Alex, her friends and family. Shall Alex remain a girl and have an operation to remove her other organ? This would be easier to answer is Alex knew her sexual preference. She feels she is a boy but there is a fragility in her that is very obvious. There is a moment in a film that I found heartbreaking. Alex sits with her closest friends: high school girlfriend who is sexually active,intrigued and not frightened about Alex's body; Alex's best friend from the local schoool who was stunned to discover that Alex is not just an ordinary girl. Alex's accidental lover, a slightly older boy who discovers after being with Alex that he is really gay - to the shock of his own parents. The bravest decision Alex can make is to acknowledge publicly what she is, not have any surgeries and let time show on who her live partner will be as the time goes by when she can sort out her own emotions. This film is like no other film I have seen so far. It will get you thinking about how complex human sexuality and our emotions really are. September 26, 2008

Making a Choice--An Amazing Film

"XXY"

Making a Choice--An Amazing Film

Amos Lassen

If you have a chance to see "XXY", make sure you grab it. It is one of the amazing films I have ever seen and it will make you think. For almost all of us adolescence is a difficult time. We have to face decisions and make choices but I'll bet that none of us have had to make the decision that Alex (Ines Efron) was faced with. Alex was born as what is known as an intersex child which means that he/she was born with both male and female sexual organs. Beginning life as a girl, Alex at 15 years of age was wild-eyed and she had a secret--that she is intersexed. Her parents kept her hidden from the general population by raising her in a small costal village in the hope that she would not have to face the cruelties of the modern world. The fact that she was isolated and living with an imposed gender caused her sense of self-esteem and spirit to erode. As Alex reached puberty, she became severely depressed and withdrew. She refused to take the medication that would stop her from developing masculine traits.
Alex's mother invited a top plastic surgeon from Buenos Aires to come visit with hopes that he could persuade Alex to go through gender reassignment surgery and become a female completely. Alex's father becomes irate when he considers that someone is convincing his daughter to do something that she is not sure of.
When the surgeon arrives, he does not come alone but brings his wife and teenaged son with him and Alex is thrown into a sea of conflict. To make things even more complicated is that Alvaro, the surgeon's son who is questioning his own sexuality is attracted to Alex and Alex is attracted to him. What lies ahead for the two teens is a period of heartache and problems.
Lucia Puezno in his debut film as director gives us a coming-of-age story like no other and he does so in a beautiful film that looks at sexual duality in a tender and beautiful way.
September 16, 2008

Excellent

The best intersex film I've ever seen. Very current and intelligent. Everyone should see XXY. September 3, 2008

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