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I am a woman now

I am a woman now

Niederlande 2012 - with Marie-Pierre Pruvot, April Ashley, Corinne van Tongerloo, Colette Berends, Jean Lessenich ...

The Frankfurt-Tipp rating:

Movie info

Original title:I am a woman now
Genre:Documentary
Direction:Michiel van Erp
Cinema release:18.04.2013
Production country:Niederlande 2012
Running time:Approx. 90 min.
Rated:From 6 years
Web page:www.neuevisionen.de

With a revolutionary, but also not uncontroversial surgical method, Dr. Georges Burou from Casablanca had a decisive impact on the lives of many people in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first doctor ever to surgically transform men born in the wrong body into women. More than forty years after the first operations, Dutch filmmaker Michiel van Erp met five women to whom Burou gave a new, a better life with his operations. With surprising candor, these five women tell of their lives before and after surgery, of feelings of gratitude, of unfulfilled longings, of hostility and of love.

I am a woman now is a very interesting, moving and entertaining documentary. In the interviews, the protagonists reveal not only how their lives changed after the surgery, but also what made them decide to take this very risky step at the time in the first place. There are five life stories that are connected through Dr. Burou's work, but ultimately could not be more different. While the Dutch Colette, for example, led a happy life as a normal housewife after her transformation, the French Marie-Pierre Pruvot stepped straight into the limelight as the famous showgirl Bambi, from which she has not stepped out even today. And also the Belgian Corinne and the English April, a real society lady, have finally found their great happiness after the operation. Only Jean, from Germany, has always struggled with her gender identity, not only before but also after the operation, has also lived as a man again for a long time, and to this day seems not to have found her true place in life.

Van Erp not only allows the women to look back on their lives with a considerable amount of self-reflection. He also provides some very moving moments, such as when April meets the doctor's son who has changed her life and gives her a feeling of pure happiness every morning, or when Corinne finally reveals to her best friend after years of silence that she was not born a woman. This moment in particular could easily have been voyeuristic or even lurid. But the sensitive staging turns the scene into one of the documentary's very big goosebump moments.

It is certainly permissible to ask whether such a documentary, which is only aimed at a rather small niche audience and also tends to exercise restraint visually, absolutely belongs in the cinema. But that doesn't change the fact that the film deals with a very interesting and cinematically still rather unused topic, which is sometimes moving, then again surprisingly amusing, but always served sensitively and extremely charming. And therefore applies then also - despite minor lengths - for lovers of documentaries, which are also sometimes dedicated to more unusual topics: worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

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Cinema trailer for the movie "I am a woman now (Niederlande 2012)"
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