Tomboy, a film
This fine new French import could be considered the co-release with the 1997 “Ma Vie en Rose/My Life in Pink,” a Belgium film about a little seven-year-old will-be transsexual. In Celine Sciamma’s new film, about a ten-year-old girl at home who pretends to be a boy outdoors, is sensitive and eloquent about the problems connected to gender-identification. As such, it moves well, with all the actors playing out their consternation, fears and affections, without resorting to histrionics.
Laure (Zoé Heran), her younger sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévanna) and their parents (Mathieu Demy and Sophie Cattani) have moved from the city to a new suburban neighborhood during the summer holidays. Laure explores the new surroundings, finding a gang of age-related boys and girls, one of whom, Lisa, begins to find the stirrings of emotions for “Mikael” (as Laure dubs herself); the young girl doesn’t know what to do with her own burgeoning feels of attraction and sexuality.
Sciamma’s story is simple and fraught with unperceived dangers for our young Laure/Mikael. Can she pull off her pre-pubescent masquerade as a boy? Ah, non! When she is finally discovered, her shame and the unsettling feelings that her family has to deal with, create an atmosphere of paranoia and rejection.
There are no villains in this empathetic piece – as in “Ma Vie en Rose,” no one is educated enough by the dilemma of a girl-masquerading-as-a-boy to know how to handle it, although the family does surround her with love.
This is an intelligent film, nicely shot by Crystel Fournier, and well-acted by the ensemble of adults and children is a special treat in that it opens up difficult psychological and social terrain and allows for a gentle probing. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it to you.