Based on a short story by Sergio Bizzio, Puenzo’s first feature film follows the psychological journey that 15 year old intersex Alex (Efron) makes as she struggles to find her sexual and gender identity. In a bid to protect her from the morbid curiosity and intolerance that her intersexuality would – in all likelihood – have generated, Alex’s supportive parents (Darn and Bertuccelli) have moved the family to a small coastal town in Uruguay.

Raised to look like a girl and on the verge of adulthood, Alex is urged by society’s expectations of so-called normalcy to go through a gender-determining operation. The arrival of visiting family friends, a plastic surgeon (Palacios) with a particular interest in sex change operations, his wife (Pelleritti) and teenage son, lvaro (Piroyansky), acts as catalyst for Alex’s ultimate decision when she becomes involved with the teenager.

Symbolism and imagery abound in this multi-award winning film, though not at the expense of an honest and sensitive approach to an issue that is very real. Far removed from the clichés of the genre, Puenzo nevertheless shocks us with her portrayal of society’s verisimilar attitude and behaviour once Alex’s secret is let out into the local small community. Whilst Puenzo resorts to a degree of gender stereotyping as far as Alex’s demeanour and clothing is concerned, she doesn’t do so gratuitously but rather to propose the redundancy and irrelevance of the gender binary system.

XXY is a delicate and sensitive tale of a young girl beautifully played by Ines Efron, with a naturalness that relieves the film of all sensationalism as she comes of age and has to decide whether to be a woman or a man. Fine performances all round in an admirably thoughtful film. Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard.

Sustains an unsettling mood of ambiguity that lingers long after the final credits. Stephen Holden, The New York Times.

Like Claire Denis best work, the film is alive to the precise emotional tenor of every moment as it unfolds, which it does unpredictably, provocatively and with affecting reserves of compassion. Trevor Johnson, Time Out.