Strella

Panos H. Koutras's 2009 Greek film was made entirely independently, with almost every role given to non-professionals. Released after fourteen years in prison for a murder committed in his small Greek village, Yiorgos spends his first night in a cheap hotel in central Athens, where he meets Strella, a young trans sex worker. After the night they spend together they fall in love, and from there the film moves toward a place connected to the tradition of tragedy. Its courage lies in treating the subject as neither sensation nor pity; Strella's life is presented as ordinary, and what is surprising is something else. Mina Orfanou, who played the title role, was a trans woman facing a camera for the first time and became the first trans woman to win best actress at the Hellenic Film Academy awards. The film screened in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Who it's for: viewers interested in queer cinema, Greek independent production and contemporary reworkings of classical tragedy. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding themes of incest and content about sex work, or bothered by low-budget production conditions showing in the image.