Director: Alexandra-Therese Keining
Running Time: 106 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: November 4th 2016 (UK)
There have been quite a lot of films about people who have magically become a different gender to the one they were assigned at birth. However, most have failed because their ideas about gender were rather facile, and despite pretending otherwise they still treated the idea of a man becoming a woman or vice versa as a punchline. It’s great then to find a film that’s a bit smarter about a ‘gender swap’, which takes gender issues seriously and uses its magical setup to explore trans issues in an interesting and different way.
The movie follows teenagers Kim, Bella and Momo, who are the misfits of their school. They manage to grow a special flower, which when they drink its nectar, allows them to outwardly become boys. The nectar gives them a chance to experience life as young men, which includes both excitement and a feeling of power, but also confusion and the risk of violence. Bella and Momo enjoy their time as guys, but for them it’s a fun diversion. However, Kim increasingly begins to feel that being a man is right and who she should really be. [Read more…]