FROM CHINA

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Huanyu is a woman who was born in a male body, to a devout Christian father, in China. She leads a closeted life while harboring a crush on her straight male flatmate, and finds solace in a small group of trans women from different backgrounds. But when she decides to go through with the gender affirmation surgery herself, it turns out that her father’s permission is necessary, despite Huanyu being 32 years old. What follows is a journey for acceptance. For Huanyu, of course, but also for her father Jianguo. The man feels torn between the love for his child and the obligations of his religion. Meanwhile, we also watch Huanyu’s friend Liu Mann sue her employer for termination after the gender affirmation surgery. The lawsuit quickly becomes a resonant case, directly influencing the events of the film.

WHO MADE IT: Zhang Wei came to the public spotlight with his “Factory boss,” a searing dramatization of the manufacturing industry in China. “The Rib” is his passion project, largely self-funded. Wei was inspired by the real-life coming out of a transgender woman in China, which caused a lot of controversy. So he decided to dedicate his project to the issue of the way society at large reacts to trans people, with a particular focus on organized religion. One of the writers on the project is trans, and it seemed to me from the final montage that some of the characters might have been played by real-life trans-rights activists, too.

WHY DO WE CARE: Trans rights is one of the most important topics for me, especially when scrutinized in the context of non-Western countries. It seems that “The Rib” might well be the first trans film to come out of China. China’s policy is that people are allowed to go through gender-affirming surgery, as long as they have their parents consent. But the problems with acceptance start at the social level. Parents, churches, flatmates, public spaces, all bring about challenges for any outlaws from the binary. “The Rib” shows this remarkably well, as Huanyu is forced to navigate every aspect of her existence anew when she decides to live openly as a trans woman. All the mundane pettiness that eats at her creates a suffocating background for her own and her father’s decisionmaking, which wasn’t easy, to begin with. The most memorable is the scene where Huanyu finally decides to step out of her apartment in a dress,—a striking red against the black and white drabness of everyday life. It brings about many comparisons from film history, not the least of which are Divine’s struts in John Waters’ movies. And despite the tonal differences, the importance of the precedent is comparable.