Alex (Efron) is a 15-year-old intersex person, with both male and female genitals, who has been living as a girl and using medicines to suppress masculine features, such as a beard, and to attempt to have more feminine features. However, recently Alex has stopped taking her medication.
Alex’s parents moved with her from Argentina to a village by the sea in Uruguay, to avoid society’s negative stigma. Her father, Néstor Kraken (Darín), is a marine biologist who has written a book on sexuality and makes a living treating wounded animals found by fishermen. Her mother, Suli (Bertuccelli), invites friends from Argentina: a surgeon, his wife and teenage son Álvaro (Piroyansky). The purpose, unknown to Néstor and Alex, is to discuss the possibilities of a sex-change operation.
Alex directly tells Álvaro that she would like to have sex with him. Alex seduces Álvaro and begins to have anal intercourse with him (with her as the penetrative partner), but they are interrupted when Néstor catches sight of them through an open door. When Alex later apologizes, Álvaro admits that he liked it.
Three boys from the village forcibly pull down Alex’s pants to see her genitals. Néstor realizes that reporting this to the police would cause the whole village to know about Alex’s condition. However, Alex decides that it does not matter. Alex also decides that she does not want to resume taking medicines or have an operation.
*Lucía Puenzo (born 28 November 1973) in Buenos Aires) is an Argentinian author and film director. She studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires followed by the National Film Institute (INCAA).In 2007 Puenzo directed her first film XXY. The film won several awards including three awards at the 2008 Argentine Film Critics Association Awards and the 2008 Goya award for best for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film.
