‎Girl (2018) directed by Lukas Dhont • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Girl

2018 Directed by Lukas Dhont

A 15-year-old girl, born in a boy’s body, dreams of becoming a ballerina and will push her body to its limits in order for her dream to succeed.

Victor Polster Arieh Worthalter Nele Hardiman Katelijne Damen Valentijn Dhaenens

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 27

Cisgender audiences are confronted by an inescapable irony as they watch “Girl,” the arrestingly empathetic debut from Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont. Few narrative dramas (if any) have more sensitively explored the nuances of growing up transgender, the bravery required to transition, and the struggle for self-acceptance that can motivate or define that process. Likewise, few narrative dramas (if any) have more palpably distilled the pain of being deadnamed, the humiliation of being reduced to your body, and the cruelty of being misrepresented as something that you’re not.

So how do we, who can only share in such experiences second-hand, square all that with the fact that the lead character — a 16-year-old ballerina who’s impatiently waiting for her gender-confirmation surgery — is played by a cisgender male actor?

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Review by Jacko ★★½

Certainly moving but the repetitiveness and extremely slow pace hinder what is otherwise a really well made film. All I know is Polster’s amazing performance deserved so much better.
Review by 👹Lieb Knecht ★★★★½

it’s incredible how so much emotion can be portrayed through almost purely internal forces. amazing performances and heartbreaking struggle.
Review by Laurence Barber ★½ 1

The more I think about this the more I detest it. Do we really need films about trans people in 2018 which constitute pure misery and self-hatred? This movie isn't interested in shining a light on what trans teens struggle with, it just wants to beat its trans character into the ground so cis people who've never met or spoken to a trans person, never really taken an interest in what it's like to be trans beyond the plot outline bullet points of gender dysmorphia and transition, can gasp and tut in muted, liberal shock (of which I, too, have been guilty). Nearly every review out of Cannes stressed the film's "empathetic" nature but almost all I could see was that being confused for sheer, patronising pity.
Review by Mike Kennedy ★★★★

For most of its run time, Lukas Dhont's film, which he co-wrote is pitch perfect. When we first meet Lara (a stunning performance from 15-year old Victor Polster), she is playing in bed with her younger brother Milo (Oliver Bodart). It is only as the film progresses that we find out that she is on puberty blockers, waiting to be old enough to begin hormone treatment and eventually gender affirmation surgery.

To add to a life that is already complicated enough, Lara and her family have relocated so she can study at a prestigious ballet school in pursuit of her dream of being a ballerina. Her father, Mathias (Arieh Worthalter), has to be one of the most supportive Dads in…
Review by Ella Kemp ★★★★

The poster does not do the aching, luminous nuance of this film justice. What a beautiful, sparing question about feminity this asks. I’m still looking for the answer.

Recent reviews

Review by Sean Coates ★★★★½

MIFF 2018 31st and Final Film

What a film to end a great festival with.
Undoubtably one of the best films of the year. Beautiful, emotional, gut-wrenching and very authentic. Lukas Dhont is a filmmaker to watch.
Review by ericalange ★★★

i want arieh worthalter to be my friend but mostly lover
Review by 👹Lieb Knecht ★★★★½

it’s incredible how so much emotion can be portrayed through almost purely internal forces. amazing performances and heartbreaking struggle.
Review by Joel ★★★½

MIFF 2018: #22
Review by sbanh ★★★½

The film is pretty good until it gets to this point st the end where it relies on shock value😩
Review by ahwang01 ★★★★½

Girl (2018, Lukas Dhont) is a gender-smashing portrait of the desire for acceptance, both in terms of gender and athletic prowess. The film follows Lara (formerly Victor), a pre-operative transsexual who is battling for equal footing (pun intended) amongst other girls in an elite ballet academy, all the while dealing with issues of gender, budding sexuality and body image. A bleak, sometimes gruelling but moving account of a soul in literal conflict with bodily and societal pressures, Girl recalls the bruising physical toll of Aronofsky's Black Swan but with comparatively greater emphasis on the human behind the gender cloud. The film deftly unpacks Lara's struggle in numerous insightful but no less impacting ways, where even everyday milestones (shower scenes, budding…
Review by Mike Kennedy ★★★★

For most of its run time, Lukas Dhont's film, which he co-wrote is pitch perfect. When we first meet Lara (a stunning performance from 15-year old Victor Polster), she is playing in bed with her younger brother Milo (Oliver Bodart). It is only as the film progresses that we find out that she is on puberty blockers, waiting to be old enough to begin hormone treatment and eventually gender affirmation surgery.

To add to a life that is already complicated enough, Lara and her family have relocated so she can study at a prestigious ballet school in pursuit of her dream of being a ballerina. Her father, Mathias (Arieh Worthalter), has to be one of the most supportive Dads in…
Review by Bede Jermyn ★★★★

Even though I could have done without the ending (which I felt was rather problematic), I this found this to be a captivating, intimate, sensitive and beautifully made film that has an astonishingly brilliant performance from newcomer Victor Polster.
Review by Jacko ★★½

Certainly moving but the repetitiveness and extremely slow pace hinder what is otherwise a really well made film. All I know is Polster’s amazing performance deserved so much better.