Boys don’t cry

I am not very sure how to begin this review. I don't know whether to tell you to see the film or not to see it. The problem is that the fi...

I am not very sure how to begin this review. I don’t know whether to tell you to see the film or not to see it. The problem is that the film is a brutal, true story. The kind that rattles your senses and gets under your skin.

Police records of a woman named Teena Brandon show up on the computer of Falls City policemen and suddenly the secret is out. Slowly, all Brandon’s friends discover that the man is in fact a woman and they don’t react very well. Except for Lana, who first denies and then accepts Brandon for what he is, everybody else freaks out.

Sexual identity crisis is something not everybody understands and Brandon becomes the target of two men who were once his friends. A rape and brutal double murder follows. Brandon Teena becomes a legend.

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Swank won an Oscar for her portrayal of Brandon. So goes without saying that she got under the skin of the character. The nervousness, the desperate need to fit in and the horrible end reflect on Swank’s face. Despite her small frame, she does pretty well to pass off as a guy. Sevigny, meanwhile, holds her own against Swank. She brings out the dilemma of a person in love, who discovers that things are not what they seem like very well.

Boys Don’t Cry is a brutal film. See it only if you can stomach the violent reaction of people to things that don’t fit their idea of a perfect world. Very disturbing, but very true.

— ANURADHA NAGARAJ

Bahraich faces new ‘wolf attacks’: 4 children mauled, 16 injured this month

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As many as four children have been killed and 16 injured in wild animal attacks, suspected to be wolves, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district this month — a chilling reminder of similar incidents that haunted the region last year. The body of one of the children is still missing. All those injured are adults, except for one child.

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