Somewhere in Lower Austria; the school term is drawing to a close and the summer holidays are not far off. Boarding school pupil Paula, seventeen, is secretly in love with her girlfriend Charlotte. But Charlotte’s going out with Michael. Lovelorn, Paula decides to try and take her mind of things by getting involved with schoolmate Tim, whose feelings for her are at least genuine. Paula has no idea how often Charlotte thinks of her. And then there’s Lilli, who is just dying for someone to fancy her and tries to play the wild seductress. Paula must decide if she wants to follow her own feelings or yield to other people’s.

Bacon sizzling in fat, a young woman thanking the subscribers of her YouTube channel, a corpse neatly wrapped up in black garbage bags and floating down a river – as clear as the first few images of Travis Mathews’ mystery thriller may be, the connections only become clearer gradually, as if they were emerging from the subconscious. This elliptically edited story, which revolves around a man who can no longer be described as young, is accompanied by an eerie soundscape. Filmmaker Alex lives in a van. He sets up his camera in rural areas in the US, in the no-man’s land near highways. During a visit to his mother, a former alcoholic, she shares with him a well-kept secret. There is also a small boy, with whom Alex develops an unexpectedly close relationship. Director Mathews chronicles a modern day gay existence in the West – from anonymous sex to heterosexual porn in a sex bar cabin, or as a service in a motel room. A small house and a life on the margins of society. Meanwhile, on the radio, we are treated to a steady stream of right-wing slogans against everything that is not white and heterosexual, here in Texas. Desc. courtesy of the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film is based on the true story of Tamara Adrián, the first trans person elected to national office in Venezuela. The film follows her transition as she comes out as a woman, while maintaining her career as a prominent lawyer with a wife and two small children.