Jamie passion and passionfruit!

A powerful little film from Argentina about Alex who is 15 and in the middle of a struggle with the fact that she is a hermaphodite.  Along to visit her and her family on the windswept Uruguayan coast is a family made up of a plastic surgeon father, a mother and a 16 year old boy who seems more interested by sketching beetles than sex but is soon in the middle of the turmoil that is present here.  Should Alex be operated on?  Should she give up the pills and risk regression to a more masculine state?  Father Richard Darin, impeccable as always, agonises over this, keenly supported by Valeria Bertuccelli.  But the real acting honours go to Ines Efrón whose feral look and ambiguous performance makes for a perfect Alex and Martin Piroyanski as Alvaro, all confusion and excitement.  Excellent compositions by both young actors.  The photography is also great and Lucia Puenzo must be given great credit for not shying away from difficult scenes and a very touchy subject in order to bring us this satisfying debut work.

¶¶¶¶