‘Girl’ is the story of a 15-year old boy who feels like he was born in the wrong body.
In an amazing turn by newcomer Victor Polster who plays the lead Lara, ‘Girl’ takes us on a journey of a young boy desperately wanting to rush his hormone treatment to become a girl. But Lara also has a yearning to be a ballerina, and the pressures of being born in the wrong body to be able to fulfil her dream is the challenge that Lara may or not make it through. She lives in a apartment with her taxi-driving father and much younger brother, and suffers with the usuals pressures of school, including not being able to disrobe in the locker room. But first-time director Lukas Dhont draws us into Lara’s life by focusing the entire movie on her – we see and feel her emotions, the anxiety, fear, and at times happiness about the huge change that is going to take place in her life. And Polster is just simply amazing as Lara. ‘Girl’ has won lots of awards, including the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes last year, along with an award for Best Performance for Polster. ‘Girl’ also won Best Feature Film at the London Film Festival.
‘Girl’ is not a perfect movie. There are lots of scenes of Lara while she is in ballet practice, and we are shown Lara’s bloodied toes from the rigorous training way too many times, and the ending comes as a bit of a shock, and is quite controversial. But see ‘ Girl’ for the story (written by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens) and the amazing performance by Polster.
UK release date – 15th March
Review by Tim Baros