It’s the fate of all those films about LGBTQ community - it can’t help but be painful; perhaps just like a sex reassignment surgery. Elia K. Schneider’s “Tamara”, a bio-pic on the life of Tamara Adrián, the first transgender person elected to the Venezuelan National Assembly, is a meaningful addition to all those painful narratives of people who got stuck in a body in which they don’t belong.
Set in contemporary Venezuela, a country with its predominant Catholic views, “Tamara” explores a man’s journey in search of his gender identity, and the personal and societal traumas that follow him.
Teo Almanza teaches law at a Catholic University in Venezuela. Though born a man, he always wanted to live as a woman. His desire, which in fact defines what he is, doesn’t go away from him even after he gets married and fathers two kids.
The fact that Almanza gets married despite being aware of his complex identity is something many can criticize. And that’s exactly what his wife asks him - “why didn’t you tell me about it?” His answer to her is indeed an answer to the entire world. “I thought I could control it,” he says. The film reveals how the corrective measures, often imposed by others or by oneself, in a bid to “cure” gender complexities could end up in a catastrophe.
A neatly crafted non-linear narrative, the film goes through Almanza’s memories and the present traumas he suffers. The memories are presented through his sessions with a psychiatrist as a recommendation letter from her is mandatory for him to finish the procedures for the surgery.
The film sincerely portrays the struggles of Almanza, and of those who are associated with him to an extent, during and post his transformation to Tamara. The insult he faces in his family, university, airport and hospital shows different scales of homophobia exist in that part of the country, which is not much different from the rest of the world.
Backed by the power of real life, the screenplay by Fernando Butazzoni and Elia K. Schneider form the strong pillar of the film. It captures the emotions, struggles and trauma in the life of each character vividly. The film ends on a realistic note with Tamara being shown walking alone in a crowd, perhaps on another long journey to get her new identity recognized by the world.
Luis Fernández does a classy act as Almaza and Tamara. His transformation from masculine to the feminine is marked by each move and look. Prakriti Maduro plays Ana, the naughty and loving woman who understands Tamara more than anyone.
Music by Osvaldo Montes captures the emotional layers of the film brilliantly.
More than a film, “Tamara” is an important piece of text that needs to be enjoyed and studied as part of wide range of literature in paper and on screen about the world of the LGBTQ.
Tailpiece: Watching “Tamara” on screen when she is sitting along with you in person is an altogether different experience. And, that’s what the delegates of IFFI experienced Thursday night.
