Girl, written and directed Lukas Dhont - 9 out of 10

Girl, written and directed Lukas Dhont
9 out of 10


This outstanding motion picture has been acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language and many other respectable awards.

Victor Polster is formidable, impressive in the tile role of the Girl, Lara.
She is fifteen years old, if we take her view and consider her a Girl.

In this age, I think I have read somewhere that Facebook and others offer a choice between sixty options when one wants to state her, his, her-his - and I wonder what other combinations of words we could use - sex.
As it is, Lara still has a penis and is undergoing treatment, psychological counseling as well, because she - let us stick with that - wants to undergo a transformation, complete and definitive after an operation.

It is a difficult period under any circumstances- from the psychology Classic The Female Brain  - and other works - we learn that as a teenager, the woman's brain suffers a radical transformation.
The protagonist has an even more daunting task ahead as the wants to become a ballerina...indeed, in some versions of the film, the title is Ballerina.

Furthermore, she has trained in one manner and with the change of school, she has to use a different technique.
Teachers, choreographers explain that it could be impossible, for she also has limitations due to the body she was born in, which was male...it still is in some ways, large feet, different structure.

Colleagues seem to be supportive, in class, Lara is told to close her eyes and the other girls are asked to raise their hand if they have a problem with her changing in the same locker room.
They don't.

Nevertheless, later on, one of them is particularly aggressive, while others support her stand even if less confrontational, and demands that Lara shows them her thing.
You are dressing and undressing with us and we accept that, but since you see us, we have to see you...you want me to take it out, if you are embarrassed?

When asked in counselingand by her father, Lara is confused about her sexual orientation, if she likes boys or girls.
However, she does feel an attraction for a boy in the building where they live, comes to his door on the pretense that his mail was delivered in her family's box.

Later, on the next visit, she claims she does not have the keys, they sit on the couch, touch hands, kiss and then she performs oral sex, although she might have felt forced by circumstances, in the sense that she is still anatomically between sexes, so to say,  and they would not have been able to have penetration intercourse.
Meanwhile, the pressure in the ballet classes and training is enormous and unbearable.

The heroine must inflict tremendous pain on herself, forced as she is to nearly mutilate her toes, affected by her hormonal medication, but not to the extent and in the areas she wants.
Lara wants her breasts to grow and is impatient and desperate to be a Girl and not the Girl with a penis that she still is, although only physically.

The doctor and her patient, supportive father insist that she must not add to the pain by using something like band aid in her private parts, trying to conceal, annihilate if possible, the penis that would be transformed into a vagina, once the surgical intervention will have been performed.
For that to be approved, her body needs to be able to withstand it, which means it has to be resilient and strong, whereas she places it under continuous pressure.

After sessions of intense, demanding and ultimately overwhelming ballet training, Lara collapses unconscious and the doctor declares her unfit for an operation in the immediate future, given the weakness of a body that has been pushed too far.
Depressed, unable to make the progress she wants, forced to stop the training for some time, the heroine will take drastic action.

To avoid spoiler alerts, what she does will not be mentioned.
Suffice to say that the film is marvelous, deals with delicate, excruciating pain.

The protagonist is an extraordinary, brave, determined, strong, purposeful, outstanding, original, unbelievably courageous human being.
Girl is a phenomenal motion picture.