The barren, dusty landscape gives the feel of an American Western but is punctured by the colours and brightness, verve and vitality of the trans community. They are all named after colourful birds with drab and dull miners on their hunt. This sense of contrasts and contradictions takes several other forms—the emotions and drama get interspersed with humour, violence gets balanced by unconditional love and brutality is offset by tremendous grace. Cespedes’ narrative does get needlessly protracted and overtly didactic at points but he does manage to create a compelling universe thanks to the production design (Nicolas Roses and Oscar Rios Quiroz of the Art Department) and cinematography (Angello Faccini). A world that you carry home and that stays in your mind long after the film is over.

Needless to say, Cespedes gets ample strength and support from his phenomenal large ensemble. Cortes brings an unusual depth to her character that goes way beyond her young age. Dinamarca is spontaneous and natural as Mama Boa, despite being a non-professional actor. The most compelling presence is of Catalan as Flamenco who uses body language, face and expressive eyes to great effect. Totally mesmerising!

In the pride month, and with transgender rights under siege globally, specially USA and UK, it feels fitting to look back at the Chile-France-Germany-Spain-Belgium co-production that won the Un Certain Regard prize at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival. The bigotry and otherising at its core haven’t quite gone away but have acquired myriad other forms, be it to do with sexuality or caste, class, gender or religion.