Why Sebastian Lelio does not give his trans film Una mujer fantástica an LGBT label

With gender issues in the spotlight, Chilean director Sebastian Lelio's Una mujer fantástica comes just at the right time. A trans film about young transgender woman Marina fighting to be allowed to be there, a terrific lead role by trans actress Daniela Vega. Actually, I have overused the term 'trans' three times now. Because, as it soon becomes clear when I sit down with Lelio at the Berlin festival together with a few more journalists, the filmmaker has little use for the politically correct LGBT pigeonhole.

Because even without explicitly naming it, Una mujer fantástica is a compelling drama shot with bravura. Young Marina, in love, sees her world collapse when her older lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who left his wife for her, suddenly dies. Now she must fight, sometimes literally, with Orlando's family for her right to grieve and mourn. Her right to be there.

The fact that that family and also others - the police immediately treat her as a suspect - refuse to see her as a woman does not make the drama substantially different, only more intense. It is a storm that nearly blows Marina off her socks, as depicted in a beautifully surreal moment. A woman rebelling, earlier Lelio showed something similar in the wonderful Gloria. Once again, he sides with the protagonist from start to finish. By showing Marina without ado as she is and as she wants to be: a fantastic woman.

The heart was missing

But trans actresses are still quite rare in the film world. This is why I still ask Lelio, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gonzalo Maza, whether he had Daniela Vega in mind from the start.

"Yes and no," is the answer. After which he explains that he already had a story of sudden loss and conflict with family before he met Vega. "The skeleton was already there, but the heart was missing."

"We were still looking for a strong protagonist and we asked ourselves, 'Why not a transgender woman?' We were looking for someone who could give the film the energy of our time, so to speak."

Daniela Vega

"But that was all still far too intellectual and abstract. So we stopped writing, and decided to meet all kinds of people first, including some trans women in the capital Santiago. That's where I met Daniela Vega. We had a click and started working together."

"Daniela studied singing and was used to being on stage, including as a theatre actress. I have the impression that performing is a very natural part of her life. She is an artist and I felt I could work well with her."

"Secretly, I wanted her in the film right away, but I didn't dare ask her yet. So she was my consultant for a few months, until it was clear she should play the lead."

"I mean, we could have also had Marina played by an actress, but that bothered me. That reminded me too much of the early days of cinema, when black people were portrayed by make-up actors."

"So we asked Daniela, and she accepted the role."

Exploring new territory

"On top of that, I also wanted to explore new territory with the design of my film. I was looking for a way to go beyond the bittersweet impressionism of Gloria. That was another reason to work with Daniela. I believe in the idea that a film is a love affair between camera and protagonist. I am used to talking a lot with my actors before shooting, going out together, sharing books and songs. Just until we know exactly what we have in common and dare to enter that dangerous territory together."

"During filming, I didn't have to tell Daniela much more. The film makes you look at her and watch her until you put aside your preconceptions and you end up sharing her feelings and taking her side."

"Her character is not static and fixed. Her character lives and vibrates and refuses to be captured in a single word. I wanted the form of the film to reflect that. It is a romance, a tragedy, a film about humiliation and revenge. It's a character study with documentary traits at times, but also a love story that involves a ghost. Like its protagonist, the film does not allow itself to be captured. The film too has a shifting identity. Film and protagonist propel each other forward. That's the synergy I'm looking for."

"In Spanish, we use the same word for 'genre' and 'gender'. Una mujer fantástica is a transgenre film about a transgender woman."

Magical moments

"Of course I saw Boys Don't Cry. I was young then and it made a big impression, but now when I was shooting it, I didn't think back to it for a moment. Most transgender films are about transition, but Marina has already gone through that transition. She has won that fight. Now comes another fight. Marina is ready for the world, but the world is not ready for her yet."

Which does not necessarily mean that Lelio made his film as a contribution to the contemporary discussion on the rights and discrimination against people with an identity that differs from the heterosexual norm.

"That particular discussion I wanted to stay out of. Merely by its existence, the film obviously already contributes to that, but I felt no need to make arguments for transgender rights. The humanist perspective is already enough."

"I also don't think cinema's job is to be political. Politics should give answers, cinema should ask questions. Cinema should evoke the feeling of a piece of music by Bach rather than a political agenda."

That is why he does not like to put labels on them.

LGBT as a political tool

"Labels are little boxes that we use as intellectual tools and for social control. When you say 'man', 'woman' or 'LHTB' you are using words as political tools. I am trying to find a way to move beyond that. I want to work from a standpoint that is more open and complex, where there is no need for that false semblance of intellectual pigeonholing. The film embraces that by not being this or that, but just being itself."

Lelio also challenges prevailing norms by presenting the love affair between Marina and Orlando, an older man with a good job, as something completely natural.

"Orlando is man who meets the classic heterosexual norm. You tend to think that such a thing would never happen, because Chilean society is quite rigid. It is highly segmented, without much contact between the different strata. Upper class mixes with upper class, middle class with middle class. Nothing seeps through. And yes, we wanted to connect two extremes that usually never interact. I wanted to show that this love is perfectly legitimate. I wanted to make you wonder whether Marina has to rely on people who are different from the norm, or whether she can also be perfectly normal with a nice, attractive and generally accepted man like Orlando."

Because that is perhaps the greatest strength of Una mujer fantástica, the way Marina, with all her sadness, anger and vitality, is simply allowed to be who she is. Not a representative of a gender, but a person, a fantastic woman.