When I chose the Netflix film Girl as my next entry in February Foreign Films, I was unaware of the controversy behind this movie.
I watched Girl, a story of a young transexual teenage girl who is pursuing a career as a ballerina, before reading about the film, which is always how I prefer to watch movies. I chose it because I love movies about dancers, and I’m also interested in stories that explore gender issues. My initial reaction to the content of the film is that it was well-acted, evoked emotions in me, and was, yes, at times disturbing.
I read about the film afterwards, and I think I have to acknowledge the controversies surrounding Girl in order to discuss this movie responsibly.
I will not, however, say whether I agree or disagree because I am not part of the trans community. And therefore I don’t think my opinion should have any weight. I will say this: if you watch the film, I do think you should read the criticisms out there just to know how the trans community is reacting to this movie and its message. I will provide some of those opinion pieces here, but of course feel free to read beyond what I’ve provided.
Quick overview of the movie first. Girl is a 2018 drama film, and it’s the feature length directorial debut of Belgian director Lukas Dhont. This is the story of Lara Verhaeghen, a 15 year-old trans girl who aspires to be a ballerina and enrolls in a prestigious ballet school in Antwerp. She is told when she enrolls in the school that she is a little behind where the other ballerinas are at this point, ones who have been training on pointe since they were much younger, and so she will have an uphill battle at the school. Her continued enrollment is contingent on her performance during an 8-week trial period.
Of course, this is only the first of many of Lara’s uphill battles in the movie. At the start of the film, we see that Lara is preparing for her gender confirmation surgery. Lara is taking hormone blockers and speaking with a therapist while she prepares for surgery. But as is the case with many teenagers, Lara is impatient. She is constantly frustrated with the body she lives in and often is shown treating her body in harmful ways in order to appear more feminine.
This is one of the many issues the trans community has with the film: its depiction of self-harm and gender dysphoria. In a New York Times article, Erik Piepenburg asks the question, “Is a Film About a Transgender Dancer Too ‘Dangerous’ to Watch?” Here, Piepenburg lays out both sides of the argument. On the one hand, Girl might be a beneficial movie for cis gender people to watch. It could be a way for us to understand the transgender experience. On the other hand, the self-harm aspects of the film might be triggering for many, and because this film is not written or directed by a trans person, how can we be sure these issues are being handled in a way that is sensitive to the experiences of the trans community?
What I found most concerning about the film is the casting choice of Victor Polster as Lara. Victor is a dancer, but he is a cis-male dancer who is acting the part of a trans woman dancer. I was surprised when I looked into the film and saw that Lukas Dhont went with this casting. Polster is great in the role and has received many accolades for his performance, but it would have been a great opportunity to cast a trans woman in a role. This also could have lead to a more sensitive portrayal of difficult (and perhaps triggering) issues surrounding gender dysphoria.
Again, however, I do not think my opinion is as meaningful here as that of trans critics. So here is an article from Entertainment Weekly explaining some of the criticisms from the trans community. In this Vanity Fair article, critic K. Austin Collins doubles down and states “There’s No Good Reason to Watch Belgium’s Controversial Girl.”
The film does have its supporters, however. In defense of the casting choice, Body van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter writes, “One thing that perhaps a part of the transgender community will look at more closely is Dhont’s decision to cast a cisgender boy in the role, though it might be next to impossible to find a transgender actor to play a pre-op girl who is the right age and who can also act and is a trained ballet dancer . . . for this critic, it felt like a logical choice since the movie’s subject is so clearly about the inner psychological struggles of Lara’s bodily disconnect as well as the constant and very painful external physical struggles of becoming a highly trained dancer at such a young age.” (see full review here)
It’s also worth reading Lukas Dhont’s defense of his film, which was published in The Guardian. In Dhont’s defense, the film was inspired by Nora Monsecour, a real-life trans ballet dancer, and Monsecour has come out in support of the film as well. Monsecour has said, “My story is not a fantasy of the cis director. Lara’s story is my story.”
I do not think Girl is a film that should be avoided entirely. As I wrote in my introduction, while the content of this film was at times disturbing, I think this was a moving story that was well-acted. If it’s a movie you think you may be interested in watching, I encourage you to educate yourself about the dissenting opinions about the movie. But by all means, watch it. It’s available on Netflix now.