Episode 036: XXY
“The story of an intersex fifteen-year-old. She lives with her parents, who have to cope with the challenges of her medical condition.”
This week we are reviewing “XXY”, a 2007 film set in a small coastal town in Uruguay focusing on the coming of age of fifteen year Alex, who happens to be intersex. As this episode is released very close to Intersex Day of Remembrance, I wanted to pick a piece of media that focused on an intersex character.
You can either listen to the podcast on the left, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the film followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings about the film. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the film and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to watch XXY and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
The film was written and directed by Lucia Puenzo and is actually based on a short story called Cinismo, which was written by Sergio Bizzio in their book Chicos. The film won the Critics Week grand prize at the Cannes film festival in 2007 and won Best Film in 2008 at the Argentine Film Critics Association Awards. It has actually been so well received that it was also chosen to close the Melbourne Queer Film Festival in 2008!
The title of the film appears to be a reference to Klinefelter Syndrome, also known as 47XXY, a condition where a person is born with an extra chromosome. Now the film is slightly inconsistent with the condition, since those with 47XXY usually appear to be anatomically male with certain feminine secondary sex characteristics, while in the film our main character has typical female sexual characteristics. But that is just for all you science buffs out there!
Final Feelings and Recommendation
I
F
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the film means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to watch XXY yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go watch the film and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise I won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
T