EN: A powerful encouraging drama about gender identity, freedom, self-determination, our bodies and our lives.
When her attempts to lose her virginity prove painful and infeasible, Ariel, a shy young dressmaker from rural Colombia, begins to question why her body is not performing in the womanly way she always understood it should. She soon discovers the shocking truth: she was born intersex and underwent many surgeries as an infant in order to turn her body fully female so her parents could raise her as a girl. This revelation sends her on a journey of self-reflection and examination. She begins to discover her authentic self outside of normative gender binaries.
Delicate in its treatment of the intersex experience, Being Impossible is a strong, determined and thought-provoking inquiry into the nature of how we as human beings allow our physical beings to determine our mental and spiritual identities.
The screening will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Romaine Boever (Ministère de la Famille, de l’Intégration et à la Grande Région), Thierry Bosman (infirmier, consultant Intersex Belgique), Caroline Pull (Familljen-Center), Dr. Erik Schneider (Spokesman of the Intersex & Transgender Luxembourg association) and moderated by Maryse Arendt (president of UNICEF Luxembourg).
"Patricia Ortega’s sharp and evocative feature film which premiered in October at Spain’s Valladolid Seminci is truly one of the discoveries of the year. Beautifully lensed, expertly directed and featuring an incredible anchor performance, Being Impossible offers audiences an urgent glimpse into the life of a young person already struggling to find her place in a harsh world, whose journey has been forever altered by the social pressure to conform her physical being to one of the gender extremes." Scott Braid, Maryland Film Festival
Patricia Ortega graduated from the International Film and TV School (EICTV) in Cuba with a specialisation in Film Direction. She currently works as an executive producer, scriptwriter and director. Her first fiction feature film, El Regreso (2013), had a very successful run in Venezuelan cinemas. Being Impossible (2018) is her second feature film and was selected as Venezuela’s official candidate for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. She is currently developing her third feature film, Mamacruz.