Third Body

Description: Victoria is an Israeli transgender woman living in Berlin. She listens wordlessly to her German-speaking mother complain about her while the camera pans over a large canvas. Victoria gives her a massage afterwards. Walking down Berlin street she kneels down and uses a cigarette lighter to burn a bright red wig. Her father, addressing her in Hebrew with the male pronoun, complains about the complications of his prostate surgery. Victoria is then seen on a beach vigorously rubbing sand on her body. Back in Berlin she performs at a Karaoke bar while being admired by another patron. She follows a scary anonymous sex hookup to his apartment, submits and then comforts him after he almost killed her, before leaving. A lengthy montage of Berlin night scapes is capped by Victoria waiting for her train at a U-Bahn station.

Merits: The film opens with a sensuous pre-credits montage of Victoria on a beach with a nose-pierced lover. Offenbach’s haunting Les larmes de Jacqueline compliments the languid, austere visuals. However, some of the filmmakers’ choices in their stated attempt to take us “on a winding road into Victoria’s subconscious” left me confused at times. I did not realise that that the German-speaking woman who recites a monologue from Friedrich Schiller’s The Maid of Orleans is Victoria’s mother. Nor did I connect her speech about a wayward son with her feelings towards Victoria. Similarly, complaining about the loss of his virility seemed an odd topic for a father’s conversation with his transgender daughter. While not a film for general audiences, there are those who will find some beauty here.

Rating: Nudity, sexual violence, LGBTQ theme.

Lieber-man

Comrade Dov