GIRL

When a young Flemish filmmaker wins four awards in Cannes for his feature debut, then something special has happened. And it’s not even about the superficial story about a 15-year-old transgender girl training to become a ballerina and finally getting rid of the last remains of a male body – as pertinent and important as this may be. No, GIRL’s actual triumph lies in the fact that writer and director Lukas Dhont found a perfect star in the ballet student Victor Polster, together with whom he is able to not only address the outer conflicts in the sparse style of modern social realism, but to also reveal the complex inner life of this fascinating character.