Niñxs

Kani Lapuerta
Mexico, Germany | 2025 | 86 min
World premiere
Language : Spanish
Subtitles : English, French

At the foot of Tepozteco, a sacred hill that governs the winds and fertility, lies the small town of Tepoztlán. Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Karla's body and mind are undergoing a revolution. While Karla navigates her transition, Kani shapes eight years of footage into a joyful film, as they handle the vagaries of a rural trans adolescence together.

Karla is in the midst of a trans-formation when she steps into the the life - and frame - of Kani Lapuerta, just when she is about to give up her dissociative “superpower”, which enabled her to move from the reality of her body to the more desirable reality of her mind. In short, to assert herself as a young trans woman – not an easy feat in the normative environment of a small provincial Mexican town, even with non-conformist parents. For eight years, the filmmaker (who is also transgender) wrapped her in his knowing gaze, following her step by step from one chrysalis to another. Then, filmmaker and subject meet up in a colorful den to tell each other the story as they experienced it (or imagined they did), in a humorous and reflexive back-and-forth movement, commenting on each image as it unfurls. The two irresistible “Niñxs” (“kids”) Karla and Kani play around with the “transgender question” in such a way that it becomes almost secondary. It is at this point that the film takes on its (real) political meaning. Behind one transition lurks another, universal one – one which simply consists of discovering ourselves as we emerge into adulthood. Emmanuel Chicon

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