We’ve seen the filmmaker’s new documentary that tells the story of self-identified ‘autistic transwoman’ Sylvia Robin
For his new documentary, entitled “Sylvia Robin“, the filmmaker and writer Panagiotis Evaggelidis he had spoken in his long interview with Documento last February. The film premiered at the recent International Documentary Festival of Thessaloniki and created many impressions, since until the end of the event it was considered a favorite for an award. Him Evangelidis he is fascinated by life’s outcasts, the “hells of the earth”, people who escape from the stereotypes and barriers of society. And, of course, the Sylvia Robin he is a personality that breaks the barriers even of the LGBTI community, to which he belongs.
Read more: Panagiotis Evaggelidis: “Will the law on same-sex couples change the life of Mr. Pantelis?”
Through her story Sylvia self-identifying as an “autistic transwoman”, but retaining all the masculine features of her face, the viewer comes into contact with the element of diversity and, ultimately, the acceptance of this diversity. She herself Sylvia she describes to the lens her attempts at gender transition, the development of female breasts for example, her entire medical history, but mainly her battle with depression and her inner demons. A gentle lovable creature exposed to his lens Evangelidis with a disarmingly touching honesty.
Without any background music, which would intensify the emotional tensions, the director chose as the only musical element a music box, gifted to Sylvia from her mother, who lost her at an early age. Also the most intense element of her loneliness Sylvia is turned upside down by the appearance in her brother’s documentary and the excellent relations between them.
And because the Sylvia is also an artistic nature (I was lucky enough years ago to see a performance he had set up), o Evangelidis he chose as another main body of his film, her emergence as an artistic persona. In other words, we follow Sylvia in the preparations for the performances that she organizes each time with the camera watching and recording with a distance and with a journalistic immediacy.
And while the documentary could be extremely depressing, it seems that the creator knows his “subject” well. He observes and leaves the whole field to Sylvia to speak as he may never have spoken to anyone, offering an anthem for diversity and, ultimately, for life itself. On the contrary, then, we have a “glorious” cinematic result that I wish could be seen by many people in the Athenian theaters.
#world #Sylvia #Robin #Panagiotis #Evaggelidis
