Review of Girl

A Belgian film about a person who is transitioning from boy to girl (they are about sixteen), and also studying at a ballet school. It's a very well made film, and depicts a lot of kind people supporting the young person as they transition - doctors, psychologists, the ballet school, and the father and young brother. But despite all the support it's desperately hard - not everyone is nice, and there are some really painful episodes with the girls at the ballet school. Ballet school itself looks so painful and extreme that I think perhaps it should be banned, along with fox hunting. 

It's really worth reading the Wikipedia article about the film, which gives a lot of the background - it's based on a true story, though that seems to have worked out better than the story depicted in the film.

I note in passing that the family are also transitioning from the French-speaking to the Flemish speaking part of Belgium - they speak French at home to each other but mainly Flemish to everyone else.

It's really painful to watch, and there were some sections that I couldn't watch at all, and I came out exhausted and drained. 

Watched at Lansdown Film Club.