Year in the Country with a Trans Girl
Documentary follows eight-year-old in rural France
BY STEVE ERICKSON
“Little Girl” — a documentary
about Sasha, an
8-year-old trans girl who
lives in a small French
town — follows two paths. One is
more about her mother Karine.
Karine misgenders Sasha in very
early scenes but runs a gauntlet
of bureaucracy to try and fi nd acceptance
for her. The other thread
of “Little Girl” is mellower, observational,
and more casual. Sasha
and her family are shown enjoying
a summer at the beach. She dances
in the street with an umbrella,
and the whole family rides on a
rollercoaster.
“Little Girl” risks becoming a didactic
lesson for cisgender people,
although many — especially parents
— would benefi t from it. The
scene where Karine explains the
effects of puberty blockers to her
husband leaps out, feeling like a
lecture. It doesn’t necessarily look
staged, but director Sébastien Lifshitz
probably found it essential
to include here. But Karine and
Sasha’s visits with doctors demonstrate
the concept of trans identity
as a deviation that needs a mountain
of gatekeeping from cis people,
even well-meaning ones, to be seen
as genuine.
When Sasha, assigned male
at birth, was three, she said she
wanted to grow up and become a
girl. Karine told her that was impossible,
and Sasha responded by
breaking down in tears. Several
years down the road, Karine is
trying to do right by her daughter.
(Sasha’s father and siblings seem
supportive, but they get much less
time onscreen.) She and Sasha
take the train to see a specialist
in Paris, who determines that
she really does suffer from gender
dysphoria. They get an offi cial letter
from the doctor, which was demanded
by her school. Up to this
point, Sasha grew her hair long
but wore masculine clothes and
told people she’s a boy in public.
The family prepares for her return
to school as a girl.
Lifshitz spends far more time
Sasha in “Little Girl.”
talking directly with Karine than
the girl himself. For several reasons,
that’s understandable. Asking
an eight-year-old questions
that many adults fi nd diffi cult
would be invasive. A 40-year-old
woman is likely to be more articulate,
though this leads to the
paradox that Sasha is both talked
about and seen, without many
chances to speak for herself. But
Lifhsitz’s choice of camera angles
tries to evoke her own perceptions.
He keeps it at a child’s eye level. Lifshitz
says “Whenever possible, the
fi lm adopts Sasha’s point of view.
The camera is with her, as close as
possible, at her eye level, and that’s
what allows us to create a bond of
empathy and to understand what
she’s going through.”
Karine is tired and angry.
She has set out to protect her
daughter from the threats she
sees on the horizon, but she
expects Sasha’s adolescence to
be very diffi cult. In the fi lm’s
second scene, she meets with
a local doctor who recycles old
theories about mothers causing
their sons’ gayness. She begins
to wonder if her desire to have
a girl could’ve affected Sasha
when she was still a fetus. But
even if she doesn’t get every detail
right, her love and determination
shine through. This
particular family lives up to the
idea of being a haven in a heartless
world.
“Little Girl” is careful not to become
another trans tragedy. It
shows Sasha dancing in the ballet
classes she loves, but leaves
the fact that she was blocked from
attending those classes as a girl
FILM
MUSIC BOX FILMS
to verbal description. Her school
eventually relents and lets her attend
the new year dressed as a girl.
The violence caused by rigid gender
roles is visible, embedded in
systems rather than fi sts, but not
the fi lm’s real subject. While she
initially has a hard time making
friends when she presented herself
in public as a boy, being more open
seems to lead to positive interactions
with her classmates. (The exact
time frame during which “Little
Girl” was shot is vague.) The fi lm
observes Karine and Sasha’s life
rather than editorializing about it,
transcending reality TV fare with
similar subject matter to feel truly
cinematic.
LITTLE GIRL | Directed by Sébastien
Lifshitz | Music Box Films
| In French with English subtitles |
Opens Sept. 17th at Film Forum
September 9 - September 22, 2 32 021 | GayCityNews.com
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