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This is one the best documentary's i have ever seen! The music by KAADA is simply great and brings an unusual atmosphere to the story. The characters truly touched me, and the last scene brought tears to my eyes. The director has something to tell and he can truly tell it with style and movement. It goes beyond the usual documentary style with it's funky dream like fiction scenes which takes you inside the characters in way I haven't seen elsewhere in a documentary. This is a remarkable debut by a young talent which I hope to see more from... The director also made some truly sweet commercials for norwegian television...

This is a documentary about one of Norway's most famous transvestites, Esben Benestad, made by his son, Even. It is a stunning piece of work. Unlike other movies on the subject the central conflict is not look-how-silly-I-look-wearing-all-these-women's-clothes, rather it focuses on one mans right to be a woman, and more importantly, other family members right to not accept it. This is a close encounter with a family, and it could very well have become an embarrassing meeting, but Even Benestad fortunately avoids that. Instead it becomes an engaging movie with some rhetorically strong individuals. Logos and pathos are present throughout the movie, leaving the audience with no choice but to participate in the debate.

I'll admit, I am an academic type, and this film brought to me a very interesting tale of a real transvestite, following the trail from his childhood up to late parenting, from his kids point of view. For me, this film was inspiring, and well, being the academic nerd that I am, it was "fun".

We actually ended up discussing observations during the film. For instance how Elsa seemed to have accepted the concept of "Esther" as an exciting concept and an extension of the manly in him; his decisiveness and courage, and how she seemed to be clutching to this version of it.

Also it was interesting to note how Esbens transvestitism posed two extreme paths: being the accepted male-female, where he was blissfully happy and was granted more attention, understanding and respect than many people get in a lifetime. And on the other hand, the misunderstood transvestite who felt hollow, misunderstood and abandoned.

As any psychologist will tell you, these extremes, and the demand and savouring of attention and respect, resembles narcissism a lot, but the self-humiliation of dressing in drag is of course the completely opposite of a narcissist's yearning to be "perfect".

The documentary also showed how Esben in many ways had moved more and more towards "Esther", and how he seemed to conceal and deny that this process was going on. Those were not man-breasts, and I don't think his "life-long project" was some idealistic work for accepting children, to put it like that. This was very cunningly portrayed by Even.

But here I go discussing again, what I was going to say with the above was that this is a film with truly intelligent people, discussing something very important for them, with real feelings and genuinely good argumentation. This human exchange, and the portrayal of thinking people with feelings, was very nice, and I'd say rare. Recommended documentary!