Over 300 young people apply for Poland’s first casting call for nonbinary and trans individuals, auditioning for the role of a trans boy in a Netflix film. While dreaming of stardom, they soon face far greater challenges.

Film expert recommends

This feature-length documentary is only seemingly an addition to the feature Fanfic (2023) by Marta Karwowska, a specialist in cinema for young audiences, who made her breakthrough film for Netflix. As you know, according to Natalia Osinska’s pioneering 2016 novel in our country, giving voice to LGBT youth and transgender people, something that has not yet been seen in our young adult literature. Seemingly, because in reality it’s a breathtakingly authentic portrayal of young people who were given the chance to tell their own stories in an unmediated fictional way while casting for Karwowska’s film. And their stories and portraits (as well as those of their parents) are often very dramatic and moving more than many a feature film on the subject. We watch both unexpected coming-outs and breakthroughs of emotional blockages stuck in loved ones, and emotions worthy of the best achievements of Paweł Łoziński with his Even Don’t Know How Much I Love You (2016) at the forefront. The film should be a must-read in our country.

Jacek Nowakowski

• in Polish with English subtitles
• age: 14+