I first saw this obscure film on Channel 4 late at night. The film was part of a double-bill with Thai film 'The Iron Ladies'.
The film is about Manju, a transgender woman who works as a mechanic in a garage and even has a wife. We see Manju use the male toilets which have a painted on phallus on the door, wear masculine clothes and chain smoke. The film was criticised for its tobacco smoking scenes for some reason.
The film is considered groundbreaking due to Sri Lanka having much more traditional gender roles than Western countries and even parts of Asia, such as the aforementioned Thailand. The film has been compared to 1999's 'Boys Don't Cry' with Hilary Swank. It was definitely made before the trend of a lot of TV Series and Hollywood films having TG characters; often for the sake of it.
The film goes for a realistic approach looking almost like a documentary. If it was made in the UK it would probably be called "social realist". The acting is convincing and there are a lot of believable scenarios. Manju hiding his sexuality from his wife or swearing at people at the garage to appear like "one of the boys".
This is a good and rare film. As you can guess from the review I'm not an expert on gender politics or Sri Lanka, but this is an intriguing well-crafted film which makes an impact.
The film is about Manju, a transgender woman who works as a mechanic in a garage and even has a wife. We see Manju use the male toilets which have a painted on phallus on the door, wear masculine clothes and chain smoke. The film was criticised for its tobacco smoking scenes for some reason.
The film is considered groundbreaking due to Sri Lanka having much more traditional gender roles than Western countries and even parts of Asia, such as the aforementioned Thailand. The film has been compared to 1999's 'Boys Don't Cry' with Hilary Swank. It was definitely made before the trend of a lot of TV Series and Hollywood films having TG characters; often for the sake of it.
The film goes for a realistic approach looking almost like a documentary. If it was made in the UK it would probably be called "social realist". The acting is convincing and there are a lot of believable scenarios. Manju hiding his sexuality from his wife or swearing at people at the garage to appear like "one of the boys".
This is a good and rare film. As you can guess from the review I'm not an expert on gender politics or Sri Lanka, but this is an intriguing well-crafted film which makes an impact.