The Person de Leo N. ( La persona de Leo N. ) ( To atomo de Leo N. )

The Person de Leo N. (DVD) (*)

~~$22.99~~ $16.97

Original Title: La persona de Leo N.
Alternate Title: To atomo de Leo N.
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
87 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Biographies
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2005 and produced in:
Italy ( Italy, Greece )

Directed By:
Alberto Vendemmiati

Written By:
Alberto Vendemmiati

Actors:
Alberto Vendemmiati

Synopsis:

As a twelve-year-old boy, Nicola de Leo already knew she wanted to become a woman. Today, the now forty-year-old transsexual lives in Venice and has changed her name to Nicole. She has undergone a hormone treatment and grown breasts, but she still lives inside the body of a middle-aged man, including a penis, a beard and a substantial Adam's apple. This is why Nicole is applying for a sex change through official channels. 'I never thought it would be so hard. I thought making the decision was enough,' she says. During five tense years, Nicole fights her emotional and physical struggle in the presence of director Alberto Vendemmiati's camera. Working as an actress, a seller of carnival masks and a prostitute, she finances her cosmetic treatments and looks forward to the subsidised sex change operation. Meanwhile, she turns to her elderly mother for support, who has a hard time accepting that her son will soon be a daughter.

The Italian Law guarantees the possibility to undergo subsidized surgical rectification of the sexual organs and to the subsequent alterations to the bureaucratic sexual identity of those who go through the procedure foreseen by law. It is a long journey which is complex and psychologically painful. For this reason, many opt out of the official preferring to turn instead to private structures, principally abroad. The Person De Leo N. (as referred to in the psychiatric files which analyse the transgendering from Nicola to Nicole) made the public choice, and this documentary tells that story. It's neither a journalistic probe nor a traditional reportage, because there is nothing more intimate and yet at the same time of greater social significance than one's sexual identity. It's a portrait which paradoxically and emblematically serves as a magnifying glass for the needs and desires, the fears and the hopes of every human being who strives through great sacrifice and courage to realize their personal identity. It's an inevitably emotional account of a powerful life experience in first person.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 05 February, 2013.