Express at Berlinale: Nathan Stewart Jarrett and George MacKay shine in Femme

He is so traumatised that he withdraws into a shell, and then, months later, spots his tormentor in a gay spa. Preston doesn’t recognise Jules minus his drag paraphernalia, and they quickly fall into lust. Now Jules has the power: will he wield it to hurt Preston, and take his just revenge? Or is there the remote possibility something like affection, even if it isn’t immediately apparent, growing between the two?

The drag scene in London, the lives of people on the queer spectrum, the barely concealed homophobia of those in the closet, and the constant fear of physical and emotional abuse is depicted with assurance, the jagged edges assimilated smoothly. ‘Femme’ is a film which does vivid well, giving us scene upon scene suffused with longing that turns rancid when not fulfilled.

Both the central performances are wonderful, even if it leaves you wondering exactly how the revenge will shape up: will Preston now be the submissive one, and take a beating, and will Jules be the one to administer it? And if that is indeed the case, how long will it last?

When we first come upon Fena, a trans man in his mid-20s, he is in the middle of a muddle. His former lover, before he transitioned, reappears out of the blue; his father is due to arrive from Chile in a few hours, and Fena needs a car for the airport pick-up; his 14 year old sister shows up without warning, demanding his attention; a stranger on the street compliments him sneeringly him for his ‘good Spanglish’; another stranger in a bar asks whether he has male ‘equipment’. No, he doesn’t, and no, that doesn’t make him any less of a man.

In the way, angry and resigned and unexpectedly good-natured by turns, Fena (Lio Mehiel) deals with each of these, it looks like he knows what it is like to be buffeted by multiple complications. New York may be a melting pot, but you may well bump into a racist who will feel fulfilled after flinging a slur at you. People you don’t know will demand that you explain yourself – why did you change your sex, why did you have the operation, why, why– without having the right to do so. The worst feeling is when those closest to you do not know how to respond to your choices, and lash out reactively.

Lungulov-Klotz lends his debut film ‘Mutt’, screening in the Generation 14 Plus category at the Berlinale, and which won Mehiel a jury prize at the Sundance festival, an authenticity that can only come from lived experience. And despite all its schematic problems-the-character-faces in the twenty-four-cycle-in-New-York format, the film is not downbeat. When his teenage sister reaches out to Fena for help, it’s not as a trans-person, but as an older sibling who will know what to do. For her, Fena’s choices are personal. And that’s fine.