XXY is the story of Alex (Inés Efron), an intersex Argentinian teenager on a quest for her identity.

XXY , is directed by Lucia Puenzo. It won the Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes in 2007.  It is based on a short story called "Cinismo"  about a young woman with gender ambiguity by the Argentine writer ( and the director's husband)  Sergio Bizzio.

Alex, who  appears physically female, is sheltered by her parents from a society which is less than accommodating of her difference. The family moves to a remote portal town in Uruguay so that Alex won't be treated "like a freak." 

When a family friend from Argentina (who happens to be a gender reassignment surgeon) visits with his teenage son Alvaro (Martín Piroyansky), the family and the audience are forced to confront what is for many an uncomfortable, even taboo topic.  A twist is introduced in the sexual tension between the two teenagers keeping the audience on edge throughout the film, will they won't they, and what will come of it? Alvaro's own sexual identity is not clear: Is he a "a freak like Alex?" His sexual awakening and the attendant frustration is displayed when he masturbates in anguish out in the woods on a rainy evening.

Puenzo directs the movie purposefully but with a sensitivity that makes for compelling viewing.  What could have been a detached study, hinging on hard medical facts is rendered instead in the style of a bildungsroman into a story of wider significance, a journey of discovery and the search for oneself in an alien world. The impossibility of prevarication is presented, as the protagonist is compelled to choose, between what for most of us are our initial identities, and with a third option that of the intersex individual thrown in.

The movie is powerful, moody and depressing, working to shed light on the immense personal challenges faced not just by people with intersex conditions but also by many youth growing up and looking to find themselves.  How do we deal with abnormality, with difference?