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XXY (film)
XXY is a 2007 Argentine film written and directed by Lucia Puenzo. The picture stars Ricardo Darin, Valeria Bertuccelli, Ines Efron and Martin Piroyansky. It tells the story of a 15-year-old intersex person: the way her family copes with her condition, and the ultimate decision she must eventually make as she explores her sexuality.
XXY won the Critics' Week grand prize at the Cannes film festival, as well as the ACID/CCAS Support Award.
The film's title is a reference to Klinefelter's Syndrome, also known as XXY Syndrome, a condition in which males have an extra X sex chromosome. The title has been criticized as misleading by Unitask, an Italian organization for people with Klinefelter's Syndrome and their relatives, since males with Klinefelter's Syndrome do not have female physical traits as the film's protagonist does.
Plot summary
Alex (Efron) is a 15-year-old intersex person living in the secrecy of a lonely house by the sea in Uruguay. She is constantly changing schools and longs to be ridden of her tedious life. Her father, Nestor Kraken (Darin), is a marine biologist with a book on sexuality published who lives off fishermen who handle him wounded animals. Her mother, Suli (Bertuccelli), secretly invites a renowned surgeon to her house along with his wife and estranged son (Piroyansky), Alvaro. Alex and Alvaro soon become engaged in a hopeless relationship through which they must decide on their sexuality.
Themes
Alex keeps aquariums full of clownfish. Clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites: all individuals are initially male, and may later become female. This example of a hermaphroditic organism in nature is repeated throughout the film.
The sea animal motif recurs in the family name Kraken, which is also the name of a mythical sea monster.
See also
Intersexuality
Hermaphrodite
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article XXY (film)
