Venezuelan
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
film directed by
Elia Schneider
Elia is a name which may be a variant of the names Elias, Elijah (disambiguation), Elijah, Eli or Eliahu, and may refer to:
People
* Aelia (gens) or Elia, a ''gens'' of Ancient Rome
Mononymic
* Elia or Elijah, a biblical prophet
* Elia, a pen-na ...
. The film is about a successful lawyer who takes the decision to start a
gender transition
Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...
. It is inspired in the life of
Tamara Adrián
Tamara Adrián (born 20 February 1954, in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Venezuela in the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election.transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
person elected to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
in Venezuela and the second transgender member of a national legislature in the Americas."Venezuela Elects First Transgender Congresswoman in the Americas" . '' Out'', 7 December 2015. It became the highest-grossing film in Venezuela in 2016.
Plot
The film revolves around Teo, a successful lawyer and university professor, married and with two children, who decides to start a
gender transition
Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...
.
Production
Schneider tried to present the film as a representation of
transphobia
Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...
and not as a biographical film. Although key moments of the life of the politician remained, the script was rewritten several times to conceal aspects of her life. According to
Tamara Adrián
Tamara Adrián (born 20 February 1954, in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Venezuela in the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election. Fernández met with Tamara herself to design the character. At the end he decided not to imitate her, but rather tried to express how he would have felt in a similar situation.
Despite being filmed in 2013, Tamara was screened in November 2016 after delayals due to artistic decisions, the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency and afterwards due to the government's decision to limit the power schedule in malls.
Tamara Adrián made a cameo in the film with the role of a university rector.
Reception
Upon release, 19,341 tickets were sold in Venezuela by 27 November, surpassing '' From Afar'', awarded with the
Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
at the
72nd Venice International Film Festival
The 72nd annual Venice International Film Festival took place from 2 to 12 September 2015. Alfonso Cuarón served as the President of the Jury for the main competition. A restored version of Federico Fellini's film ''Amarcord'' was shown at the ...
, which sold 16,924 tickets during its time at the cinemas.
The film received a recognition by the Ibero American General Secretariat (SEGIB) for its script and was selected in a list of the 14 best movies screened at the
International Film Festival of India
The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, on the western coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common pla ...
. It was also awarded with the San Bárbara Festival Best Film Nueva Vision Award for Spain/Latin American Cinema. The film was nominated to nine MIFF Awards at the
Milan Film Festival
Milan Film Festival (MFF), also known as Milano Film Festival, is an annual film festival held since 1996 in Milan, Italy. It was founded as a competition of only local short films. It became an international film festival in 1998 when it also st ...
.
See also
*
Venezuelan LGBT+ cinema
In Venezuelan cinema, national LGBT-themed films, largely those that deal with homosexuality and homophobia in society, have become the industry's main drivers in the 2010s.
The new wave of LGBT+ cinema in Venezuela has been likened to the Cuban ...