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What happens to a family if the father is suddenly transgender? Director Malou Reymann’s Danish drama explores this question and tells its own story in the process.
“We are going to get divorced,” says mother Helle (Neel Rønholt) to her two daughters. “Because your father chose to be a woman.” Thomas (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) is transgender and becomes Agnete.
“A perfectly normal family” begins with this ad on the kitchen table. And it accompanies the family for several months.
In the early 2000s, when the story takes place, the issue of transgender people was even less well known than it is today.
The director’s father is named Helene.
Especially 11-year-old Emma (Kaya Toft Loholt) can’t handle change. He identified more with his soccer-crazy father than with his mother or 14-year-old sister (Rigmor Ranthe).
Emma cannot accept that her father is now a woman.
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The movie is told from Emma’s perspective. Danish director Malou Reymann didn’t take this look by chance. Your own father is transgender. Today her name is Helene. When Malou Reymann was eleven years old, his father began to change his sex.
Director Malou Reymann (right) with her father Helene.
Marie hald
The 31-year-old director still calls Helene “papa”, but now uses the pronoun “she.”
“I’m not doing this movie as therapy,” says Malou Reymann in an interview. “I already have that behind me. I knew this job wasn’t about me. “
Kaya Toft Loholt was only ten years old when we were filming.
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The casting was very important to her. She is particularly excited about Kaya Toft Loholt, who plays Emma. She was only ten years old when it was established. But he was able to empathize with the role immediately. “Your father is deaf. He knows what it is to love someone different, “says the director.
Accusation: cis man instead of trans woman
But some LGBTQ film critics and bloggers are dissatisfied with a cast: Reymann played the trans woman Agnete with a cis man. In other words, a man whose gender identity corresponds to the gender assigned to him at birth.
Critics think that a trans woman should also be embodied by a trans actress. However, he never looked for a trans actress, says director Reymann.
Agnete also wants to be a good father as a woman.
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Finding your way into a new body is very important in the role. “Finding someone who was going through the adjustment would have been incredibly difficult. Not to mention that it would hardly be possible to be in front of the camera at the same time. “
And a woman who has passed the adjustment would have already reached the new body. ‘Actor Mikkel Boe Følsgaard experienced all of this for the first time. Like his character Agnete. “
He discussed the cast with his father. «She supported the decision. So I decided it was okay. “
No self portrait but still your own story
Malou Reymann was inspired by his own story. However, she did not want to portray herself or her father in the film.
So he barely told actresses about his own feelings during his youth. Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, who plays Thomas / Agnete, never knew his father Helene.
However, you can feel the love that Malou Reymann has for all of his characters. Although Emma is at the center, the director also reveals the pain, infighting, and confusion of all the other members of the family. We all make mistakes. And everyone is doing their best to cope with the new situation.
Film release: November 19, 2020
