While Brazilian cinema has flourished since the 1950s, neighboring Argentina has seen its film industry wither in the face of American imports. In 1957 the country passed The Cinema Law in an attempt to curb the influx, resulting in the state funding most of the country’s films. Since then, the slow rise of independent cinema has seen Argentinian film find a new and refreshingly alternative voice, used with great clarity and effectiveness in Lucia Puenzo’s debut feature XXY.

Winner of the Cannes International Critics Grand Prize, XXY tells the true story of Alex, a 15-year-old hermaphrodite, whose parents’ immediate reaction to her indeterminate gender is self-imposed exile, raising their child on a small island off the coast of Uruguay. We enter this unusual scenario just as Alex, upon hitting puberty, struggles to choose which, if any, gender and orientation, to grow into.

Ines Efron, a budding young Argentinian starlet, plays the protagonist. While the 24-year-old has had starring roles in several regional films, including Lucrecia Martel’s La Mujer sin Cabeza and Victoria Galardi and Martin Carranza's Amorosa Soledad, she divulges that XXY has been her toughest role to date. With nothing more than a “forgive my English,” Efron told psychoPEDIA more:

How did you first approach the part?
The part played itself. I thought of myself as a tool and tried to free myself of any prejudices towards the role. I thought it would be much harder, but recalling my own emotions from that time in my life, when I was a teenager-– trying to understand who you are, and taste everything–- I realised Alex’s life wasn’t so different. When I was 17, I loved a movie called Fucking Amal by Lukas Modisson. In that movie, I felt all the emptiness of being a teenager. That internal fury and alienation is something I immediately brought to the role.

What was your first reaction to reading the script?
A strong connection with Alex. I love teenage stories-– they thrill me, but I also felt, though, that articulating the story was hard, as like anything worth making, it contained a truth that applies to all of us.

What sort of preparation did you do before filming started?
I mostly just listened to people. Lucia [Puenzo] gave me a documentary called Octopus Alarm about a person living a similar reality to Alex; the desire to live free, through adventures, to not lose anything– and with all of that surrounded by fury and confinement. We also spoke to a lot of doctors who specialized in inter-gender operations and that really opened my eyes to the things that people born like this have to go through. I have to admit, though, I did not finish the original book. It was so very different to the script, it became more of a distraction than anything.

How about the actual filming?
Everyone was new to me. A lot of the crew had worked together before, but not me. I did have a good connection with all the actors though, and felt sure Lucia trusted my interpretation of the part. That helped when it came to the rape scene, which was the hardest bit. I thought it would be difficult to act because of what it is, but actually what I struggled with most was how not to change Alex into a ridiculously male, predatory person.

Do you worry about getting typecast, as this role marks a strong international debut?
I don’t think like that. You can’t help but be typecast–- whatever you do. If you portray every story as honestly as you can, you will probably just be typecast as a good actor, no? Life is changing all the time, so how can we define any of it?

What have been people's reaction to the film in Argentina?
In my country, the subject matter is very new, and the general reaction has been surprise. When you're making something, it is hard to know exactly what it is. When I saw the film, I thought the most interesting thing about it was the fact that the story does not conclude. It shows a dilemma as an eternal dilemma. And that, to me, says everything.

~Iphgenia Baal


All photos courtesy of XXY