Valentina is a very impressive feature film debut from Brazilian writer/director Cássio Pereira dos Santos that tells the heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a transgender teenager. It starts with teenage Valentina (Thiessa Woinbackk) being unable to get into a night club with her friends because her official ID card still lists her with her male birth name.
It’s the final straw for her and her single-parent Mother (Guta Stresser) so they pack up and move to another more remote town where no-one knows their history . She and her mother are particular close and she has supported Valentina through every single step of the transitioning. She is Valentina’s advocate and protector all in one.
When they try to enroll Valentina at the High School, the Principal agrees that she can do so as a girl if she can also get her estranged father to sign the Registration Form. It appear he abandoned them because Valentina is trans.
Meanwhile Valentina makes a conscious decision not to tell her new friends that she’s trans.. Because of all the outright hostility and threatened violence she has suffered in the past, she believes it’s up to her to decide if and when she wants to disclose her gender identity.
However tragically, Valentina is sexually assaulted at a party, and as a result she faces cyberbullying from a photoshopped image that’s been sent to her classmates. And then as she walks home alone at night, men in masks horrifyingly grab her and one cuts her hair. as a way to try to strip her of her femininity.
The upside to all this new trauma is when she does eventually share her transitioning with her friends, to her very pleasant surprise they are extremely supportive.
Dos Santos’s film adds so much to the continuing dialogue about the transgender community by setting this story in a remote small backwater town in Brazil. Even more important was his casting of trans actress Thiessa Woinbackk as Valentina which made her compelling performance so pitch perfect and compelling
Kudos too for the powerful positive ending to this encouraging coming-out story which has Valentina being totally accepted by even all the School Officials. Lest we get too carried away with this one “happy-ever-after-story” , the final credits role and remind us of the harsh reality of life for trans people.
| It is estimated that in Brazil, roughly 82% of trans boys and girls drop out of school. This population’s life expectancy is 35 years old. |
https://en.valentinafilme.com.br/
for details of future screenings