I had the opportunity to watch the film on a rainy Friday night last May at MALBA. The season tickets had sold out, and the house was full. By the end of the projection, several bewildered groups from the audience had gathered in the museum´s lobby to discuss what they had just watched, waiting for Ubers or choosing a place for a cocktail or to eat.

Months ahead, I bought the homonymous novel and read it, learning about the film was made out of a script co-signed by the author of the book, Javier van de Couter, the director of the film and Laura Huberman, the writer, increased my curiosity. The novel is an intimate one that provides information in many directions, it has graphic sexual depictions and monologues from the main character, all these make the book, from my point of view, difficult to adapt.

Before directing attention to the movie let me refer briefly to Camila Sosa Villada, a well known Argentinian author and actress member of the trans community who in 2020 received the prestigious Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for her novel  “Las malas” (2019), the book came out in perfect timing to read during Covid-19 confinement and was well received by critics and readers as well in Argentina and abroad, since the novel has been translated to several languages. I hope this paragraph arouses the reader´s curiosity of her personna and writings. “Tesis sobre una domesticación” (2020) was her second novel,  and the author has a short stories publication “Soy una tonta por quererte” (2022)nand her latest, a narrow edition of a non fiction “La traición de mi lengua” (2025).  You Tube has several interviews and videos on Camila Sosa Villada.

Thesis on a Domestication is directed by Javier van de Couter and stars Camila Sosa Villada herself as a successful trans theatre actress,  and  Mexican actor Alfonso Herrera as the gay lawyer she is attracted to, who is also drawn towards her. An unconventional prosperous couple that puts itself under stress playing the roles of a conventional family: father, mother with an HIV+ adoptive son, there are other family members to stretch the tension.   

Unfortunately, the complexities and stream of consciusness the actress lives in the novel (with a strong biographical dosis for me) are left aside in the film;  the way facts are presented in the book don’t succed either and the translation into film with the risk of misinterpretations make it difficult to follow the story for the ones that haven´t read the novel.

Locations and set decorations are well chosen,  the Brutalist apartment the couple lives in is beyond imagination,  beautiful cinematography by  Luciano Badaracco, help to provide on the status, lifestyle and moods of the protagonists. Although due to the lack of a coherent narrative, at moments film seems to be endless.

If in the book there is a conclusion that points to the actress, in the film there is an opened end that fits into Argentinean cinema tradition, but does a little favor to the storytelling of the thesis we have been dealing with at the movie theatre