Third floor In the world of modern cinema, there are a huge number of films dedicated to people with non-traditional sexual orientation. Dozens, if not hundreds, of filmmakers and screenwriters are vying to tell about the suffering of unfortunate homosexuals in today’s “homophobic” society. But the fact that there are those on the planet who are forced by nature to become “not like everyone else”, whose problems come not from the “right” or “wrong” psychological identity, but from their physiology, is clearly forgotten. And yet, despite all the successes of modern medicine, hermaphrodites periodically continue to be born, and it is not always possible (for medical, social or religious reasons) even in early childhood to help them decide on their choice.
Perhaps, it is much more difficult for an ordinary person to understand their problems than the often contrived difficulties of those who are usually called “gay”, but the director from the Dominican Republic Albert Javier tried. Moreover, it is on the blessed island of Hispaniola by some outlandish whim of nature that the percentage of children born with such a genetic deviation is highest. However, this is only a statistical fact given in the credits of the picture. The authors of the film tried to look at the life of a man of the “third sex” from the inside. Whether Señor Javier and his team were motivated by some morbid curiosity, something similar to the journalistic desire for sensationalism, or the idea of Hermaphrodite was originally a desire to put the protagonist in the most severe circumstances, so that then with a scalpel to begin cold-blooded dissection of his soul - now it does not matter. It was the director’s last one. Therefore, the fact that the picture is shot on the basis of real events is readily believed. In addition, the plot of the film contains another dramatic social conflict characteristic of the Dominican Republic - the situation of immigrants from neighboring dysfunctional Haiti, to which the local population is, to put it mildly, wary.
This is where the second layer begins. Haitian Melass loses his brother, killed in a street showdown, but the local police frankly send him away with such nonsense. Then the guy decides to punish the killer himself, after which he only has to run across the border. He has an uncle in the Dominican Republic. Having experienced all the charms of the emigrant lot, thrown out of the bus by dissatisfied with the society of the “nigger” creoles, Melass finds understanding and support from the ugly and ugly dressmaker Maria, after which the plot makes a sharp turn. And leaves a runaway Haitian in the background.
On the foreground comes the story of an unhappy woman, from childhood doomed to life, which is difficult to call full. Flash reminiscences from the past of Maria, the director seeks to hit the viewer's breath - so that he took his breath and rolled tears. A father who calls his daughter “this creature” and kicks his wife out of the house with a newborn baby in his arms. A mother averting her eyes from her grandmother with the promise to send money from the capital and visit on holidays. Grandmother, prematurely aged from a heavy burden, which was placed on her daughter. And the best friend, Wanda, strictly keeps the secret of Mary who trusted her, and supports her with all her small childish powers.
Painted by Javier sentimental picture frankly “presses on pity” and makes you prepare for a tragic outcome long before events take a dramatic turn. But we have to put up with this - after all, the director initially sought to show all the difficulties of the hermaphrodite's life and chose exceptionally thick black paints for this, periodically diluting them with a fraction of light colors. But very, very dosed. Barely drawing the love of Melass, he immediately reminded in black strokes that the Haitian is a murderer and a person who came out of a traditionalist society. Just showing the fruits of real female friendship, he turns her into Wanda’s painful sexual attraction to Maria, forcing the girl to play a cruel joke with an immigrant in love with her friend. And all this against the background of the alienation faced by both Melass and Maria - even if the first and has family support behind him, and the secret of the second is not known to everyone in the town. But you cannot hide from yourself: from education, from mentality, from religiosity, which makes Mary consider herself an impure being from the beginning.
In his quest to make the audience sympathize with the characters, Javier is too straightforward, as if he was not shooting a feature film, but a documentary. The love triangle between Maria, Vanda and Melass, which harbored a lot of opportunities for the heroes of Hermaphrodite to reveal their characters to the viewer, remains nothing more than a construction necessary for a tough finale that raises a real problem. Another thing is that for this it was not necessary to make a game film. However, Marilou Acosta, who played the main role very decently and sincerely, in the fact that the director lacked skill, is not at all to blame. And to make serious claims to the tape, which set itself quite specific tasks, and these tasks successfully solved, would be biased. For those who want more romance and mystery in this topic, welcome to the film by the Frenchman Rene Fere “Mysterious Alexine”. Albert Javier proved himself more a journalist than an artist, but a journalist conscientious and tactful.